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Hrom the Library of 
Hrofessor Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield 
Bequeathed by him to 
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Princeton Cheologiral Seminary 


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Chafer, Lewis Sperry, 1871- 
O52. 


He that is spiritual 


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He that is Spiritual 


BY Me 
LEWIS SPERRY CHAFER 


Author of 
<< Satan and the Satanic System ”’ 
‘<'True Evangelism ”’ 
«<The Kingdom in History and Prophecy ”’ 


«« Salvation ”’ 


CopyricHT, 1918, By 
LOUIS SPERRY CHAFER 


THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY 
DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF 


My Mother 
WITH THE LORD SINCE 1915 
A DEVOVED CHRISTIAN 
SHE WAS FAITHFUL TO GOD 
AND HER CHILDREN THROUGH 
MANY YEARS OF TESTING. 


Vd 
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Bh Van Wee 
Nie? ; ie Per. 
pal ars 

ABR ee enn Re 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER I 


THREE CuiassEs OF MEN 


The ‘“‘Natural”’ Man ATER SPA AG AY OWLS MIE et oR boom so he 
RCA PALE VLAD Coie te Lares oe elaborates la wie aint 
he mopiritwal s Maridiii: ainda d-g)scaien ales 


CHAPTER II 


Tue MINISTRIES OF THE SPIRIT 


The Changing Relationship................-- 
1. The Spirit According to the Old Testament 


2. The Spirit According to the Gospels and 
TOL HOUR CLS ETE as uit at een lade etstate 
The Day of Pentecost. 255.) yaa acess 


3. The Spirit According to the remainder of 
The Acts and the Epistle............ 


The NMInistries Of the SPIGA lye aoe eke 
1. The Ministry of the Spirit in Restraining 
2. The Ministry of the Spirit in Reproving 
3. The Ministry of the Spirit in Regenerating 
4. The Ministry of the Spirit as Indwelling 
LHENDIEOVIER siiuis a Caboose pene eramnertuelane 
a, According to Revelation........... 
b, According to;Reasom: sii.) es) s. 

The Ministry of the Spirit in Baptizing. . 

The Ministry of the Spirit in Sealing.... 

The Ministry of the Spirit in Filling. ... 

Vv 


eyes 


vi Contents 


CHAPTER III 


THE FILLING OF THE SPIRIT, OR TRUE SPIRITUALITY 


What is the Filling of the Spirit?.. oy... 30 
The Seven Manifestations of the Spirit........ 35 
1. The Spirit Produces Christian Character. 35 
BOO Ve RVC IVI HOME rv aS eae Neh ata 40 


2. The Spirit Produces Christian Service.... 44 
Sa UHewpirit) Leachea iri can os ele 
4. The Spirit Promotes Praise and Thanks- 

AN Gh eg nM Dene rai tb ay Fa W UCLN ik ATs i 51 
5.’ 'Uhe Spirit \Leads.). a Fs 
6. The Spirit Witnesseth with our Spirit. Gama 
7. The Spirit Maketh Intercession for us. 55 
h 


What Spirituality is, and What it is Not...... 55 


CHAPTER IV 


“GriEVE Not THE Hoty Sprrir’’ 


The First Condition of True Spirituality 


What it is that Grieves the SPAR eM Sear 60 
The Cure of the Effect of Sin in a Christian’s 

bate igs a Me ee CAAA Cle aes re a eaten A 61 

he Seven Major |Paseagesvuniaie yn nn ress 63 
1. Christ alone can Cleanse from Sin (John 

XH De PL) ORR ye aE eke Polis Daceigar aah 63 


2. Confession the one Condition of Fellow- 
ship, Forgiveness and Cleansing (1 John 


1: 1—-ii; 2) a \cotp alts. PME) Yah aerial sl eatwa pole fad ate aae eo tec badal 65 
3. Self-judgment Saves from Chastisement 

(l' Corr x23 12 32 in 67 
4. Chastisement the Father’s Correction and 

Training of His Sinning Child........ 68 


5. An Example of Christian Repentance 
(2' Cor NitS—PLy Usa ataee ae le an 70 


Contents vii 


6. The Repentance, Confession and Restora- 
tion of an Old Testament Saint (Ps. 


DEIO) Ne nr aioe Aah 71 
7. The Three-fold Illustrative Parable in the 
New Testament (Luke xv:1-32)....... 72 
CHAPTER V 


“OQurencu Not THE SPIRIT” 


The Second Condition of True uate 
What it is that meaty the UREA i 81 


The Yielded Life.. Pid Ta I hae 

Christ the Paice HVAT A pe ROU PEM Rb 3)5 85 

Knowing the Will of God.. sy WL ca aa eee 

Withra tiie A aACrifCral lle! oo. Gy litae acd opaecaanetalls 92 
CHAPTER VI 


“WaLK IN THE SPIRIT” 


The Third Condition of True pies ee 


What is meant by ‘‘Walk in the Spirit’. Wine 5 
pus Reasons for Reliance upon the Spirit. . 96 
. The Impossible Heavenly Standard, in 

Contrastitoithe Worldeii cic ke eas 97 
2. The Christian Faces a World-Ruling Foe 100 
PTAAMEUA PATHIC INA TUTE A toOn On ie BiOw aa Rane 103 
The Doctrine of Perfection........... 105 
The Doctrine of Sanctification........ 107 


The Doctrine of the Adamic Nature... 109 
I. From what Source does Sin Proceed 


AT ee TISUIALL Ee ouch) oer wae ion ahs 111 
Cu ONT g GOMES ASTOR ae ROR AOR AYO RR deg 112 
CrCl ANd TIAN Wud aac o hon stee era. eaayes a auy 113 
ee he Watian Ray GNCEON Tet pn GRU EMRE VORA at Beho\ RADA 116 


The Believer’s Death with Christ... 122 
The Summarizing Scripture......... 132 


Viil Contents 


‘II, The Divine Remedy... 2.00. 


Two Theories Contrasted: Eradica- 
tion, or Divine Control). 2.2.2... 


Review, What is-Spirituality?. Wey ow, 
CHAPTER VII 


An ANALOGY AND THE CONCLUSION 


An Analogy, (a) Salvation from the Penalty of 
Sin, with (b) Salvation from the Power 


Of Sin Ve Oe 


1. The Estate of the One who needs to be 
paved aiand: by youuu tun) Ne ona 


2. The Divine Objective and Ideal in Salva- 
Hon (avand (bic es Waa sana a ee 


3. Salvation is of God Alone (a and b)..... 


4. God can Save only by and through the 
Cross (4 and b) iy a a annie aa 


5. Salvation is by Faith (a and b).......... 
The Conclusiony ) Cu iii angan nme eee ar 


134 


ANE Be)", 


PREFACE 


The importance of the subject of this book is be- 
yond estimation, True spirituality is that in the 
child of God which satisfies and glorifies the Father. 
It brings celestial joy and peace to the believer’s 
own heart. Upon it all Christian service depends. 

Since God purposes to work through human 
means, the fitness of the instrument determines the 
progress made. There is general agreement that 
the daily life of Christians should be improved; but 
improvement cannot be had other than in God’s 
way. Merely to exhort an unspiritual Christian is 
a loss of time and energy. When that Christian 
becomes spiritual, he will need no exhortation; but 
himself becomes an exhorter both by precept and 
example. Christians, as a whole, are satiated with. 
ideals. Their real difficulty is stated in the words: 
“How to perform that which is good, I find not.” 
The divine way to sufficiency and efficiency must 
be understood and acted upon, else we fail. 

The Bible doctrine concerning the Christian’s 
nature and daily practice, and the relation of these 
to the death of Christ, is subject to some disagree- 
ment. It is not the primary purpose of this book 
to correct details of doctrine. The object has been 
rather to state the outstanding revelation of the 
divine provision for the overcoming life. May we 
be delivered from controversy over secondary 
things in the face of our present failure to “walk 
as it becometh saints,” 


It is my prayer that this statement of the fact 
and force of the spiritual life may be helpful to 
those who are called upon to manifest Christ to a 
dying world, and who hope to hear the Master say, 
“well done.” 

Lewis SPERRY CHAFER. 
Fast Orange, N. J. 
November, 1918. 


CHAPTER I 
THREE CLASSES OF MEN 


There is an obvious difference in the character 
and quality of the daily life of Christians. This 
difference is acknowledged and defined in the New 
Testament. There is also a possible improvement 
in the character and quality of the daily life of 
Christians which is experienced by all who fulfil 
certain conditions. These conditions, too, form an 
important theme in the Word of God. 

The Apostle Paul, by the Spirit, has divided the 
whole human family into three groups: (1) The 
“natural man,” who is unregenerate, or unchanged 
spiritually ; (2) the “carnal man,” who is a “babe 
in Christ,” and walks “as a man’; and (8) the 
“spiritual” man. These groups are classified by 
the Apostle according to their ability to understand 
and receive a certain body of Truth, which is of 
things “revealed” unto us by the Spirit. Men are 
vitally different one from the other as regards the 
fact of the new birth and the life of power and 
blessing; but their classification is made evident by 
their attitude toward things “revealed,” 

In 1 Cor. 2:9-3:4 this threefold classification is 
stated. The passage opens as follows: “But as it 
is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither 
have entered into the heart of man, the things which 
God hath prepared for them that love him. But 
God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit.” A 
distinction is here drawn between these general sub- 


2 He That is Spiritual 


jects of human knowledge which are received 
through the eye-gate, the ear-gate, or the “heart” 
(the power to reason), and other subjects which 
are said to have been “revealed” unto us by His 
Spirit. There is no reference here to any revelation 
other than that which is already contained in the 
Scriptures of truth, and this revelation is boundless, 
as the passage goes on to state: “For the Spirit 
(Who reveals) searcheth all things, yea, the deep 
things of God.” 

Men are classified according to their ability to 
understand and receive these “deep things of God.” 
Into these “deep things of God” no unaided man 
can go. “For what man knoweth the things of a 
man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even 
so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit 
of God” (knows them). An unaided man may 
enter freely into the things of his fellow man be- 
cause of “the spirit of man which is in him.” He 
cannot extend his sphere. He cannot know experi- 
mentally the things of the animal world below him, 
and certainly he cannot enter a higher sphere and 
know experimentally the things of God. Even 
though man, of himself, cannot know the things 
of God, the Spirit knows them, and a man may be 
so related to the Spirit that he too may know them. 
The passage continues: “Now we have received, 
not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of 
God; that we may know the things (the “deep things 
of God,” which eye hath not seen, etc.) that are 
freely given to us of God.” “We?” (that is, all saved, 
excluding none) have received “the Spirit which is 
of God.” Here is a great potentiality. Being so 


Three Classes of Men 3 


vitally related to the Spirit of God as to have Him 
abiding within, it is possible, because of that fact, 
to come to know “the things that are freely given to 
us of God.” We could never know them of our- 
selves: the Spirit knows, He indwells, and He 
reveals. 

This divine revelation is transmitted to us in 
“words” which the Holy Spirit teacheth, as the 
Apostle goes on to state: “Which things also we 
speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom 
teacheth, but which the Holy Spirit teacheth; com- 
paring spiritual things with spiritual.” God’s Book 
is a Book of words and the very words which con- 
vey “man’s wisdom” may be used to convey things 
which “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither 
have entered into the heart of man.” Nevertheless 
unaided man cannot understand these “deep things 
of God,” though couched in words most familiar 
to man, except as they are “revealed” by the Spirit. 
Just so, in coming to know these revealed things, 
progress is made only as one spiritual thing is com- 
pared with another spiritual thing. Spiritual things 
must be communicated by spiritual means. 


THE NATURAL MAN 


“But the natural man receiveth not the things 
(the revealed or ‘deep’ things) of the Spirit of God: 
for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he 
know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” 
In this passage the natural man is not blamed. It 
is simply an accurate statement of the facts of his 
being and the passage goes on to assign the exact 


4. He That is Spiritual 


cause of these facts. In this connection we are 
assured that revelation is by the Spirit and the 
“natural man” is helpless to understand things 
revealed because he has not received “the Spirit 
which is of God.” He has received only “the spirit 
of man which is in him.” Though he may, with 
“man’s wisdom,” be able to read the words, he 
cannot receive their spiritual meaning. To him the 
revelation is ‘‘foolishness.”” He cannot “receive” it, 
or “know it, 

The preceding verses of the context (1:18, 23) 
have defined a part of the divine revelation which is 
said to be “foolishness” to the “natural man”: “For 
the preaching of the cross is to them that perish 
foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the 
power of God.” ‘But we preach Christ crucified, 
unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the 
Greeks (Gentiles) foolishness.’ Much more than 
the mere historical fact of the death of Christ is 
here meant. It is the divine unfolding of redemp- 
tion through grace and includes all the eternal re- 
lationships that are made possible thereby. The 
moral principles and many of the religious teach- 
ings of the Bible are within the range of the capacity 
of the “natural man.” From these sources he may 
eloquently preach; yea, and most seriously, not even 
knowing that “the deep things of God” exist. 

Satan, in his counterfeit systems of truth, is said 
to have “deep things” to reveal (Rev. 2:24) and 
“doctrines of devils’ (1 Tim: 4:1, 2) which things, 
on the other hand, are as certainly not received by 
the true child of God; for it is said, “And a stranger 
will they not follow, but will flee from him: for 


Three Classes of Men 5 


they know not the voice of strangers” (John 10:5). 
Yet the “deep things” of Satan are strangely 
adapted to the blinded, “natural man” and are, 
therefore, received by him. 

The unsaved man, though educated with all of 
“man’s wisdom,” and though religious and atten- 
tive, is blind to the gospel (2 Cor. 4:3, 4) and if 
called upon to formulate a doctrinal statement, will 
naturally formulate a “new theology” which is so 
“re-stated” as to omit the real meaning of the 
cross with its unfolding of the “deep things of 
God.” ‘The cross, as a substitutionary sacrifice for 
sin, is ‘‘foolishness’’ unto him. His very limitations 
as a “natural man” demand that this shall be so. 
Human wisdom cannot help him, for ‘“‘the world by 
wisdom knew not God.” On the other hand, the 
boundless “deep things of God” are to be freely 
given to the one who has received “the Spirit which 
is of God.” The true child of God can be taught 
the divine revelation, having received the Spirit. A 
trained mind will greatly assist; but apart from the 
presence of the indwelling Teacher, a trained mind 
avails nothing in coming to know the spiritual 
meaning of the revealed things of God. 

Measureless evil has arisen through the supposi- 
tion that, because a man is well advanced in the 
“wisdom of this world,” his opinions are of value 
in spiritual matters. With all his learning and 
sincerity, if he is only a “‘natural man,” he will find 
nothing but “foolishness” in the things which are 
revealed by the Spirit. The knowledge of science 
cannot be substituted for the indwelling of, and 
right relation to, the Holy Spirit of God. Apart 


6 He That is Spiritual 


from the Spirit there can be no regeneration and 
the “deep things of God” are unknowable. When 
an unregenerate teacher openly rejects the vital 
saving truths of God’s Word, those truths will 
usually be discredited and discarded by the pupil. 
This is the colossal blunder of many students in 
universities and colleges today. 


THE CARNAL MAN 


There are no divine classifications among the un- 
saved, for they are all said to be “natural” men. 
There are, however, two classifications of the saved, 
and in the text under consideration, the “spiritual” 
man is named before the “carnal” man and is thus 
placed in direct contrast with the unsaved. This is 
fitting because the “spiritual” man is the divine 
ideal. “HE THAT IS SPIRITUAL” (1 Cor. 2: 15) 
is the normal, if not the usual, Christian. But 
there is a “carnal” man and he must be considered. 

The Apostle proceeds in chapter 3:1-4 with the 
description of the “carnal’’ man: “And I, brethen, 
could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as 
unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have 
fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto 
ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye 
able. For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is 
among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are 
ye not carnal, and walk as men? For while one 
saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; 
are ye not carnal?” 

Some Christians, thus, are said to be “carnal’’ 
because they can receive only the milk of the Word, 
in contrast to the strong meat; they yield to envy, 


Three Classes of Men 7 


strife and divisions; and are walking as men, when 
the true child of God is expected to “walk in the 
Spirit” (Gal. 5:16) ; to “walk in love” (Eph. 5:2) ; 
and to “keep the unity of the Spirit” (Eph. 4:3). 
Though saved, the carnal are walking “according 
to the course of this world.” They are “carnal” 
because the flesh is dominating them (See Rom. 
7:14). <A different description is found in Rom. 
8:5-%: There the one referred to is “in the flesh,” 
and so is unsaved; while a ‘“‘carnal” Christian is not 
“in the flesh,’ but he has the flesh in him. “But ye 
are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit if so be that 
the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man 
have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.” 
The “carnal” man, or “babe in Christ,” is not 
“able to bear’ the deep things of God. He is only 
a babe; but even that, it is important to note, is a 
height of position and reality which can never be 
compared with the utter incapacity of the “natural 
man.” The “carnal’’ man, being so little occupied 
with true spiritual meat, yields to envy and strife 
which lead to divisions among the very believers. 
No reference is made here to the superficial fact of 
outward divisions or various organizations. It is 
a reference to envy and strife which were working 
to sunder the priceless fellowship and love of the 
saints. Different organizations may often tend to 
class distinctions among the believers, but it is not 
necessarily so. The sin which is here pointed out 
is that of the believer who follows human leaders. 
This sin would not be cured were all the religious 
organizations instantly swept from the earth, or 
merged into one. There were present the 
“Paulites,” the “Cephasites,” the ‘Apollosites” and 


8 He That is Spiritual 


the “Christites” (cf. 1:12). These were not as yet 
rival organizations, but divisions within the 
Corinthian church that grew out of envy and strife. 
History shows that such divisions end in rival 
organizations. The fact of division was but the 
outward expression of the deeper sin of loveless, 
carnal lives. For a Christian to glory in sectarian- 
ism is “baby talk” at best, and reveals the more 
serious lack of true Christian love which should 
flow out to all the saints. Divisions will fade away 
and their offense will cease when the believers “have 
love one for the other.” 

But the “carnal” Christian is also characterized 
by a “walk” that is on the same plane as that of 
the “natural” man. “Are ye not carnal, and walk 
as men’ (cf. 2 Cor. 10:2-5)? The objectives and 
affections are centered in the same unspiritual sphere 
as that of the “natural” man. In contrast to such a 
fleshly walk, we read: “This I say then, Walk in 
the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the 
flesh.” This is spirituality. | 


THE SPIRITUAL MAN 


There are two great spiritual changes which are’ 
possible to human experience—the change from the 
“natural” man to the saved man, and the change 
from the “carnal” man to the “spiritual” man. The 
former is divinely accomplished when there is a real 
faith in Christ; the latter is accomplished when 
there is a real adjustment to the Spirit. The “spirit- 
ual” man is the divine ideal in life and ministry, 
in power with God and man, in unbroken fellowship 
and blessing. To discover these realities and the 
revealed conditions upon which all may be realized 
is the purpose of the following pages, 


CHAPTER II 
THE MINISTRIES OF THE SPIRIT 


A. Christian is a Christian because he is rightly 
related to Christ; but “he that is spiritual” is 
spiritual because he is rightly related to the Spirit, 
in addition to his relation to Christ in salvation. It 
therefore follows that any attempt to discover the 
fact and conditions of true spirituality must be based 
upon a clear understanding of the Bible revelation 
concerning the Spirit in His possible relationships 
to men. It seems to be the latest device of Satan 
to create confusion concerning the work of the 
Spirit, and this confusion appears among the most 
pious and earnest believers. The quality of the be- 
liever’s life is a tremendous issue before God, and 
Satan’s power is naturally directed against the pur- 
pose of God. Satan’s ends could be gained in no 
better way than to promote some statement of 
truth that misses the vital issues, or promotes posi- 
tive error, and thus hinders the right understanding 
of the divinely provided source of blessing. This 
general confusion on the Bible teachings regarding 
the Spirit is reflected in our hymnology. Bible 
expositors are united in deploring the fact that so 
many hymms on the Spirit are unscriptural. 


THE CHANGING RELATIONSHIPS 


It is not within the purpose of this book to under- 
take a complete statement of the Bible teachings 
concerning the Spirit of God, but certain aspects 


10 He That is Spiritual 


of the whole revelation must be understood and re- 
ceived, before the God-provided life and walk in the 
Spirit can be comprehended or intelligently entered. 
The Bible teaching concerning the Spirit may be 
divided into three general divisions: (1) The Spirit 
according to the Old Testament; (2) The Spirit 
according to the Gospels and as far in the Scriptures 
as The Acts 10:43; (3) The Spirit according to the 
remainder of The Acts and the Epistles. 


I. Tue Spirit AccorpDING To THE OLD TESTA- 
MENT, 


Here, as in all the Scriptures, the Spirit of God 
is declared to be a Person, rather than an influence. 
He is revealed as being equal in deity and attributes 
with the other Persons of the Godhead. However, 
though ceaselessly active in all the centuries before 
the cross, it was not until after that great event 
that He became an abiding Presence in the hearts 
of men (John %:37-39; 14:16, 17). He often 
came upon people as revealed in the events which 
are recorded in the Old Testament. He came upon 
them to accomplish certain objects and left them, 
when the work was done, as freely as He had come.: 
So far as the record goes, no person in that whole 
period had any choice, or expected to have any 
choice, in the sovereign movements of the Spirit. 
Elisha and David are possible exceptions. It is not 
at all clear that Elisha’s request to Elijah, “let a 
double portion of thy spirit be upon me,” was, in 
the mind of the young man Elisha, a prayer for 
the Spirit of God. David did pray that the Spirit 
should not be taken from him; but this was in con- 


The Ministries of the Spirit 11 


nection with his great sin. His prayer was that the 
Spirit should not depart because of his sin. His con- 
fession was before God and the occasion was re- 
moved. During the period covered by the Old 
Testament, the Spirit was related to men in a 
sovereign way. In the light of subsequent revela- 
tion in the New Testament the prayer of David, 
“and take not thy Holy Spirit from me,’ cannot 
reasonably be made now. The Spirit has come to 
abide. 


II. THe Sprrit 'AlccorDING TO THE GOSPELS AND 
THE Acts To 10: 43. 

The essential character of the Spirit’s relation 
to men during the period of the Gospels is that of 
transition or progression, from the age-long rela- 
tionships of the Old Testament to the final and 
abiding relationships in the dispensation of grace. 

The early instruction of the disciples had been 
fin ‘the Old Testament, and the statement from 
Christ that the Spirit might be had by asking (Lk. 
11:18) was so new to them that, so far as the 
record goes, they never asked. This new relation- 
ship, suggested by the statement, “How much more 
shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to 
them that ask him,” characterizes a forward step 
in the progressive relationship of the Spirit with 
men during the Gospel period. 

Just before His death Jesus said: “And I will 
pray the Father, and he shall give you another Com- 
forter, that he may abide with you for ever; even 
the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, 
because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but 


12 He That is Spiritual 


ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall 
be in you” (John 14:16, 17). The words, “I will 
pray,” may have suggested to the disciples that they 
had failed to pray. However, the prayer of the 
Son of God cannot be unanswered and the Spirit 
who was “with’’ them was soon to be “in” them. 

After His resurrection and just before His ascen- 
sion, Jesus breathed on His disciples and said unto 
them, “Receive ye the Holy Spirit.” They possessed 
the indwelling Spirit from that moment; but that 
relationship was evidently incomplete according to 
the plan and purpose of God, for He soon “‘com- 
manded them that they should not depart from 
Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, 
which, saith he, ye have heard of me” (Acts 1:4, 
cf. Lk, 24:49). The “promise of the Father’ was 
of the Spirit, but evidently concerning that yet un- 
experienced ministry of the Spirit coming “upon” 
them for power. 

There was, then, a period, according to the Gos- 
pels, when the disciples were without the Spirit as 
the multitudes of the Old Testament time had been; 
but they were granted the new privilege of prayer 
for the presence of the Spirit. Later, the Lord 
Himself prayed to the Father that the Spirit Who 
was then with them might be in them and abide. 
He then breathed on them and they received the 
indwelling Spirit ; yet they were commanded not to 
depart out of Jerusalem. No service could be un- | 
dertaken and no ministry performed until the Spirit 
had come upon them for power. “Ye shall receive 
power, after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you: 
and ye shall be witnesses unto me.” This is a 


The Ministries of the Spirit 13 


revelation of conditions which are abiding. It is 
not enough that servants and witnesses have re- 
ceived the Spirit: He must come upon them, or 
fill them. 

| THE DAY OF PENTECOST 

At least three distinct things were accomplished 
on the Day of Pentecost concerning the relationship 
of the Spirit with men: 

(1) The Spirit made His advent into the world 
here to abide throughout this dispensation. As 
Christ is now located at the. right hand of God, 
though omnipresent, so the Spirit, though omnipres- 
ent, is now locally abiding in the world, in a temple, 
or habitation, of living stones (Eph, 2:19-22). 
The individual believer is also spoken of as a temple 
of the Spirit (1 Cor. 6:19). The Spirit will not 
leave the world, or even one stone of that building 
until the age-long purpose of forming that temple 
is finished. The Ephesian passage reads thus: 
“Now therefore ye are no more strangers and 
foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and 
of the household of God; and are built (being built, 
into the temple, cf. v 21) upon the foundation of 
the apostles and prophets (New Testament prophets, 
cf. 4:11), Jesus Christ himself being the chief 
corner stone; in whom all the building fitly framed 
together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: 
in whom ye also are builded (are being builded) 
together for an habitation of God through the 
Spirit.” 

The Spirit came on the Day of Pentecost and that 
aspect of the meaning of Pentecost will no more be 
repeated than the incarnation of Christ. There is 


14 He That is Spiritual 


no occasion to call the Spirit to “come,” for He is 
here. 

(2) Again, Pentecost marked the beginning of 
the formation of a new body, or organism which, 
in its relation to Christ, is called “the church which 
is his body.” Though the church had not been 
mentioned in the Old Testament, Christ had prom- 
ised that He would “build” it. “Upon this rock I 
will build my church” (Mt. 16:18). The church, 
as a distinct organism, is not mentioned as in exist- 
ence until after the advent of the Spirit at Pentecost. 
It is then stated “And the same day there were 
added unto them about three thousand souls” (Acts 
2:41. While the Greek word for the church does 
not appear in this text, as it does in 2:47, “And 
the Lord added to the church daily such as should 
be saved,” the unity which is here being formed is 
none other than the church. See also Acts 5:14; 
11:24). According to these passages, the church, 
which in the Gospels was yet future, is already 
brought into existence and to it (the believers united 
to the Lord), are being added “such as should be 
saved.” It is said that “the Lord was adding to 
the church.” Certainly there is no reference here 
to a human organization, for no such thing had been 
formed. It is not a membership created by human 
voice, for it is the Lord who is adding to this 
church. A body had begun to be formed of mem- 
bers who were vitally joined to Christ and indwelt 
by the Spirit and these very facts of relationship 
made them an organism and united them by ties 
which are closer than any human ties. To this 
organism other members were being “added” as 


The Ministries of the Spirit 15 


they were saved. That formation and subsequent 
building of the “church which is his body” is the 
baptism with the Holy Spirit as it is written: “For 
as the body is one, and hath many members, and 
all the members of that one body, being many, are 
one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are 
we all baptized into one body” (1 Cor. 12:12, 13). 
Thus the meaning of Pentecost includes, as well, 
the beginning of the baptizing ministry of the Spirit 
of God.* This ministry is evidently accomplished 
whenever a soul is saved. 

(3) So, also, at Pentecost the lives that were 
prepared were filled with the Spirit, or the Spirit 
came upon them for power as promised. Thus 
they began the age-long ministry of witnessing. 
The mighty effect of this new ministry of the Spirit 
was especially revealed in the case of Peter. Be- 
fore, he had cursed and sworn for fear in the 
presence of a little maid: now he not only fearlessly 
accuses the rulers of the Nation of being guilty of 
the murder of the Prince of Life, but the power of 
his testimony is seen in the salvation of three thou- 
sand souls. 

Thus the full meaning of Pentecost was revealed 
in the advent of the Spirit into the world to abide 
throughout this dispensation; in the baptism of 
many members into Christ; and the empowering 
of those whose lives were prepared for the work of 
witnessing unto Christ. 

A careful student of the Scriptures may dis- 
tinguish yet one further step in the whole transition 
from the relationships of the Spirit as revealed in 


*See also page 26. 


16 He That is Spiritual 


the Old Testament to that which is the final relation- 
ship in the present dispensation. Much that has 
been mentioned thus far is made permanent in this 
age. The last step here mentioned is in regard to 
the fact that during the well defined period in which 
the Gospel was preached to Jews only, which was 
from Pentecost to Peter’s visit to Cornelius, or 
about eight years, the Spirit, in some cases at least, 
was received through the Jewish rite (Heb. 6: 2) 
of the laying on of hands (Acts 8:14-17). Though 
this human rite was continued in connection with 
the filling of the Spirit and for service (Acts 6:6; 
13:3; 19:6; 1 Tim. 4:14; 2-Tim. 1:6), the Spirit 
was to be received, under the final provisions for 
this age, by believing on Christ for ‘salvation (John 
7:37-39). This final condition for receiving the 
Spirit began with the preaching of the Gospel to 
the Gentiles in Cornelius’ house (Acts 10:44) and 
has continued throughout the age. 


Ill. Tue Spirit AccorDING TO THE REMAINDER 
OF THE ACTS AND THE EPISTLES. 

The final and abiding relationships of the Spirit 
with men in this age are revealed under seven minis- 
tries. Two of these are ministries to the unsaved 
world ; four are ministries to all believers alike; and 
one is a ministry to all believers who come into 
right adjustment with God. 


THE MINISTRIES OF THE SPIRIT 
These seven ministries are: 


First, The Ministry of the Spirit in Restraining. 
The one passage bearing on this aspect of the 


The Ministries of the Spirit ty: 


Spirit’s work (2 Thes. 2: 6-8) is itself difficult, and 
is not wholly free from disagreement even among 
Bible students. In the passage, the Apostle has just 
disclosed the fact that, immediately before the re- 
turn of Christ in His glory, there will be an apostasy 
and the man of sin will be revealed “who opposeth 
and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or 
that is worshipped.” He then goes on to state: 
“And now ye know what withholdeth that he might 
be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity 
doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, 
until he be taken out of the way. And then shall 
that Wicked (one) be revealed, whom the Lord 
shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and 
shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.” 
“The man of sin” must appear with all the power of 
Satan (v. 9); but he will appear at God’s appointed 
time: “that he may be revealed in his time,” and 
this as soon as a hindering One be gone out of His 
place. Then shall that wicked one be revealed, 
whom the Lord shall destroy at His coming. 

The name of the restrainer, here referred to, is 
not revealed. His sovereign power over the earth 
and all the forces of darkness identifies Him with 
the Godhead, and since the Spirit is the present 
active force in this dispensation, it follows that the 
reference in the passage is to the Spirit of God. 
Satan might have sufficient power; but hardly would 
it be exercised against himself. “A house divided 
against itself cannot stand.” It is evident that it 
is the Spirit of God Who hinders Satan’s man and 
Satan’s projects until the divinely appointed time. 
There is no hint that Satan will withdraw, or be 


18 He That is Spiritual 


removed out of the way before this “man of sin” 
can be revealed; but there is a sense in which the 
Spirit will be removed. That particular relation- 
ship or Presence which began with the church and 
has continued with the church will naturally cease 
when the church is removed. As the Omnipresent 
One, the Spirit will remain, but His present ministry 
and abode in the church will have been changed. 
There are clear assurances of the presence and 
power of the Spirit in the world after the departure 
of the church. The restraining power of the Spirit 
will be withdrawn and the church removed at a 
time known to God, and then will the forces of 
darkness be permitted to come to their final display 
and judgtnent. 

An evidence of the Spirit’s power to restrain may 
be seen in the fact that with all their profanity men 
do not now swear in the name of the Holy Spirit. 
There is a restraining power in the world and it js 
evidently one of the present ministries of the Spirit. 


Second, The Ministry of the Spirit in Reproving 
the World of Sin, Righteousness and Judgment. 


This ministry, by its very nature, must be a 
dealing with the individual, rather than with the 
world as a whole. The passage reads: “And when 
he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of 
righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, becattse 
they believe not on me; of righteousness, because 
I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; of 
judgment, because the prince of this world is 
judged” (John 16: 8-11). This passage indicates a 
three-fold ministry. 


The Ministries of the Spirit 19 


(1) The Spirit enlightens the unsaved with re- 
gard to one sin only: “Of sin, because they believe 
not on me.” The full judgment of sin has been 
taken up and completed at the cross (John 1:29). 
Hence a lost man must be made aware of the fact 
that, because of the cross, his present obligation to 
God is that of accepting God’s provided cure for 
his sins. In this ministry, the Spirit does not shame 
the unsaved because of their sins; but He reveals 
the fact of a Saviour, and One Who may be re- 
ceived or rejected. 

(2) The Spirit illuminates the unsaved with re- 
spect to righteousness and that, “because I go to 
my Father, and ye see me no more.” How can a 
sinner be made righteous in the eyes of a Holy 
God? It will not be by any attempted self-improve- 
ment. There is a righteousness for him from God, 
which is unto all and upon all who believe. It is 
foreign to the wisdom of this world that a perfect 
righteousness can be gained by simply believing, 
and believing on an invisible Person Who is at the 
right hand of God; yet every lost soul must, in 
some measure, sense this great possibility if he is 
to be constrained to turn to Christ from self. 

(3) So, also, the Spirit, in this three-fold minis- 
try, illuminates the unsaved concerning a divine 
judgment which is already past; for “the prince of 
this world is judged.” By this illumination the un- 
saved are made to realize that it is not a problem 
of getting God to be merciful in His judgments of 
their sins: they are rather to believe that the judg- 
ment is wholly past and that they have only to rest 
in the priceless victory that is won. Every claim 


20 He That is Spiritual 


of Satan over man because of sin has been broken, 
and so perfectly that God, Who is infinitely holy, 
can now receive and save sinners. Principalities 
and powers were triumphed over in the cross (Col. 
2:18-15). 

Thus the Spirit ministers to the world, actualizing 
to them otherwise unknowable facts which, taken to- 
gether, form the central truths of the Gospel of His 
grace. 


Third, The Ministry of the Spirit in Re- 
generating. 

This and the three following ministries of the 
Spirit enter into the salvation of the one who be- 
lieves on Christ. He is born of the Spirit (John 
3:6) and has become a legitimate child of God. 
He has “‘partaken of the divine nature” and Christ 
is begotten in him “‘the hope of glory.” As he is a 
child of God, he is also an “heir of God, and a joint- 
heir with Jesus Christ.” The new divine nature is 
more deeply implanted in his being than the human 
nature of his earthly father or mother. This trans- 
formation is accomplished when he believes, and is 
never repeated; for the Bible knows nothing of a 
second regeneration by the Spirit. 


Fourth, The Ministry of the Spirit as Indwelling 
the Believer. | 

The fact of the indwelling Spirit is not revealed 
through any experience whatsoever; nevertheless 
that fact is the foundation upon which all other 
ministries to the child of God must depend. It is 
impossible for one to enter into the plan and pro- 
vision for a life of power and blessing and ignore 


The Ministries of the Spirit 21 


the distinct revelation as to where the Spirit is now 
as related to the believer. It must be understood 
and fully believed that the Spirit is now indwelling 
the true child of God and that He indwells from 
the moment the believer is saved. (1) The Bible 
explicitly teaches this, and (2) reason demands it 
in the light of other revelations: 


(a) According to Revelation. 


The fact that the Spirit indwells the believer is 
now to be considered without reference to the other 
ministries of the Spirit. Any ministry of the Spirit 
taken alone would be incomplete; but it is of par- 
ticular importance that the Spirit’s ministry of 
indwelling be seen by itself. A few passages of 
Scripture may suffice: 

John %:37-39, “In the last day, that great day 
of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any 
man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He 
that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out 
of his belly (inner life) shall flow rivers of living 
water. (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they 
that believe on him should receive: for the Holy 
Spirit was not yet given; because Jesus was not yet 
glorified.)” This passage contains the distinct 
promise that al/ in this dispensation who believe on 
Him receive the Spirit when they believe. 

Acts 11:17, “Forasmuch then as God gave them 
the like gift as he did unto us, who believed on the 
Lord Jesus Christ; what was I, that I could with- 
stand God?” ‘This is Peter’s account of the first 
preaching of the Gospel to the Gentiles, He states 
that the Gentiles received the Spirit when they 


22 He That is Spiritual 


believed as the Jews had done. The one condition 
was believing on Christ for salvation and the Spirit 
was received as a vital part of that salvation. 

Rom, 5:5, “Because the love of God is shed 
abroad in our hearts by the Spirit which is given 
unto us.” | 

Rom. 8:9, “But ye are not in the flesh, but in the 
Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. 
Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is 
none of his.” This is a clear reference to the 
indwelling Spirit. Not only is the very fact of 
salvation to be tested by His presence; but every 
quickening of the “mortal body” depends on “His 
Spirit that dwelleth in you” (v. 11). 

Rom. 8:23, “And not only they (all creation), 
but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the - 
Spirit.’ There is no reference here to some class 
of Christians. All Christians have the “firstfruits 
of the Spirit.” 

1 Cor. 2:12, “Now we have received * * * 
the Spirit which is of God.” Again the reference 
is not to a class of believers: ali have received the 
Spirit. 

1 Cor. 6:19, 20, “What? know ye not that your 
body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in 
you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your 
own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore 
glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which 
are God’s.” ‘This, again, is not a reference to some 
class of very holy Christians. The context reveals 
them to be guilty of most serious sin, and the fact 
of the indwelling Spirit is made the basis of this 
appeal. They are not told that unless they cease 


The Ministries of the Spirit 23 


from sin they will lose the Spirit. They are told 
that they have the Spirit in them and are appealed 
to on this sole ground to turn to a life of holiness 
and purity. There were much deeper realities for 
these sinning Christians in their relation to the 
Spirit; but receiving the Spirit was not their prob- 
lem. He was already indwelling them. 

1 Cor. 12:18, “And have been all made to drink 
into one Spirit.” The same very faulty Corinthian 
Christians are included in the word “all” (see also, 
Vint), 

2 Cor. 5:5, “God, who also hath given unto us 
the earnest of the Spirit.” Again, it is not some 
Christians, but all, 

Gal. 3:2, “This only would I learn of you, Re- 
ceived ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or 
by the hearing of faith?’ It was by faith and the 
Spirit has been received by al] who have exercised 
saving faith. 

Gal. 4:6, “And because ye are sons (not because 
ye are sanctified), God hath sent forth the Spirit 
of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.” 

1 John 3:24, “And hereby we know that he 
abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given 
unto us.” 

1 John 4:13, “Hereby know we that we dwell 
in him, and he in us, because he hath given us 
of his Spirit.” 

The indwelling Spirit is an “unction” and an 
“anointing” for each child of God; for these words 
are not used concerning a class of believers (1 John 
2:20, 27). 

There are three passages which have seemed to 


24 He That is Spiritual 


some to confuse the clear teaching of the Scriptures 
just given and these should be considered. 

(1) Acts 5:32, “And we are his witnesses of 
these things; and so is also the Holy Spirit, whom 
God hath given to them that obey him.” This 
is not the daily life obedience of a Christian. It 
is an appeal to unsaved men for “the obedience 
of faith.” The passage teaches that the Spirit is 
given to those who obey God concerning faith in 
His Son as Saviour. The context is clear. 

(2) Acts 8:14-17, has already been considered. 
It falls within the brief period between Pentecost 
and the preaching of the Gospel to the Gentiles. 
The conditions existing at that time should not 
be taken as the final relationship between the Spirit 
and all believers throughout this age. 

(3) Acts 19:1-6, “And it came to pass, that, 
while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed 
through the upper coasts came to Ephesus: and find- 
ing certain disciples (not necessarily Christians), 
he said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Spirit 
since ye believed (or, did ye receive the Holy Spirit 
when ye believed? See all versions)? And they 
said unto him, We have not so much as heard 
whether there be any Holy Spirit. And he said 
unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized? and 
they said, Unto John’s baptism. Then said Paul, 
John verily baptized with the baptism of repent- 
ance, saying unto the people, that they should be- 
lieve on him which should come after him, that is, 
on Christ Jesus. When they heard this, they were 
baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.” These 
“disciples” were disciples, or proselytes, of John the 


The Ministries of the Spirit 25 


Baptist. They knew little of Christ, or of the way 
of salvation by believing, or of the Holy Spirit. 
Paul had immediately missed the evidence of the 
presence of the Spirit in these disciples and so 
struck at the vital point with the question, “Upon 
believing did ye receive the Spirit?’ After they 
heard of salvation through Christ and believed, the 
Apostle is said to have “laid his hands upon them,” 
and “the Holy Spirit came on them; and they spake 
with tongues and prophesied.” The laying on of 
hands, like the signs which followed, is Biblically 
related to the Spirit as being “upon” them, or filling 
them; but should not be confused with the fact 
that they had received the Spirit when they believed. 

There is, therefore, no Scripture which contra- 
dicts the clear testimony of the Bible that all be- 
lievers of this dispensation have the Spirit im them. 


(b) According to Reason. 


A holy life and walk, which must always depend 
on the enabling power of the Spirit, is as much 
demanded of one believer as of another. There is 
not one standard of life for one class of believers, 
and another standard of life for another class of 
believers. If there is a child of God who has not 
the Spirit in him, he must, with all reason, be 
excused from those responsibilities which anticipate 
the power and presence of the Spirit. The fact 
that God addresses all believers as though they pos- 
sess the Spirit is sufficient evidence that they have 
the Spirit. 

It may be concluded, then, that all believers have 


26 He That is Spiritual 


the Spirit. This does not imply that they have en- 
tered into all the possible blessings of a Spirit-filled 
life. They have the Spirit when they are saved 
and there is no record that He ever withdraws. 
His is an abiding presence. 


Fifth, The Ministry of the Spirit in Baptizing. 


Reference has already been made to this par- 
ticular ministry of the Spirit as related to the Day 
of Pentecost. The full Bible teaching of this theme 
is presented in a very few passages (John 1:33; 
Acts 1:5; 11:16; Rom. 6:3; 1 Cor. 12:18; Eph. 
4:5; Col. 2: 12). Of these passages, only one 
unfolds the meaning: “For by one Spirit are we 
all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews 
or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have 
been all made to drink into one Spirit” (1 Cor. 
12:13, cf Rom. 6:3). In no Scripture is this 
ministry of the Spirit directly related to power 
or service. It has to do with the forming of the 
body of Christ out of living members, and when 
one is united vitally and organically to Christ, he 
has been “baptized into one body,” and has been 
“made to drink into one Spirit” (cf v. 12). Being 
a member in the body of Christ, anticipates ser- 
vice; but service is always related to another minis- 
try than the baptism of the Spirit. The organic 
relationship to the body of Christ is accomplished 
as a part of the great divine undertaking i in salva- 
tion which is performed when saving faith is exer- 
cised. There is no indication that this baptizing 
ministry of the Spirit would be undertaken a second 
time. A possible distinction as to whether the bap- 


The Ministries of the Spirit 27 


tism of the Spirit was accomplished at Pentecost 
provisionally for all who accept Christ in this dis- 
pensation, or whether it is individual when they be- 
lieve is of no moment in this discussion. It is 
important to discover the exact meaning of the 
word as representing a particular ministry of the 
Spirit. 

Sixth, The Ministry of the Spirit in Sealing. 


“And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, where- 
by ye are sealed unto the day of redemption” 
(Eph. 4:30, See also, 2 Cor. 1:22; Eph. 1:18). 
The ministry of the Spirit in sealing evidently rep- 
resents the Godward aspect of the relationship, 
authority, responsibility, and of a final transaction. 
It is “unto the day of redemption.” The Spirit 
Himself is the seal, and all who have the Spirit 
are sealed. His presence in the heart is the divine 
mark. This ministry of the Spirit is also performed 
when faith is exercised for salvation, and this minis- 
try could not be repeated since the first sealing of 
any believer is “unto the day of redemption.” 

There are, then, four ministries of the Spirit for 
the believer which are wrought at the moment he 
is saved and are never accomplished a second time. 
He is said to be born, indwelt (or anointed), bap- 
tized, and sealed of the Spirit. It may also be 
added that these four operations of the Spirit in 
and for the child of God are not related to an 
experience, The Spirit may actualize all this to 
the believer after he is saved, and it may then be- 
come the occasion for most blessed joy and con- 
solation. These four general ministries which are 


28 He That is Spiritual 


performed in and for believers alike constitute the 
“Earnest of the Spirit” (2 Cor. 1:22; 5:5),:-and 
the “First fruits of the Spirit” (Rom. 8: 23). 


Seventh, The Ministry of the Spirit in Filling. 


The fact, extent and conditions of this ministry 
of the Spirit constitute the message of this book 
and will occupy the following chapters. What has 
gone before has been written that the filling of 
the Spirit might not be confused with any other 
of His operations. AES § 


— = 


CHAPTER III. 


THE FILLING OF THE SPIRIT, OR TRUE 
SPIRITUALITY. 


By various terms the Bible teaches that there 
are two classes of Christians: those who “abide 
in Christ,” and those who “abide not”; those who 
are “walking in the light,” and those who “walk in 
darkness”; those who “walk by the Spirit,” and 
those who “walk as men”; those who “walk in 
newness of life,’ and those who “walk after the 
flesh” ; those who have the Spirit “in” and “upon” 
them, and those who have the Spirit “in” them, 
but not “upon” them; those who are “spiritual” 
and those who are “carnal”; those who are “filled 
with the Spirit,” and those who are not. All this 
has to do with the quality of daily life of saved 
people, and is in no way a contrast between the 
saved and the unsaved. Where there is such an 
emphasis in the Bible as is indicated by these dis- 
tinctions there is a corresponding reality. There 
is, then, the possibility of a great transition, out of 
carnal info true spiritual living. The revelation 
concerning this possible transition, with all of its 
experiences and blessings, is taken seriously only 
by earnest believers who are faithfully seeking a 
God-honoring daily life. To such there is bound- 
less joy and consolation in this gospel of deliver- 
ance, power and victory. 

The transition from the carnal to the spiritual, 
is treated at length in the Bible. However, it is 


30 He That is Spiritual 


possible to know the doctrine and not to have 
entered into is blessings; as it is possible, on the 
other hand, to have entered in some measure into 
the experience and not to have known the doctrine. 
This gospel of deliverance has suffered much from 
those who have sought to understand its principles 
by analyzing some personal experience apart from 
the teaching of the Scriptures. The danger in this 
error is obvious: No experience would ever be a 
true, or complete representation of the full pur- 
pose of God; and if it were, nothing short of the 
infinite wisdom of God could formulate its exact 
statement. For want of Bible instruction many, 
when attempting to account for an experience, have 
coined terms and phrases which are not Biblical 
and are therefore invariably as faulty as any of the 
conclusions of the finite mind when attempting to 
deal with the divine realities. It would be useless 
to attempt to classify experiences; but when one 
has found peace, power and blessing through a 
definite yielding to God and reliance on His strength 
alone, the Bible clearly assigns the cause to be a 
larger manifestation of the presence and power of 
the Spirit. Such an one is, to some degree, “filled 
with the Spirit.” 


WHAT IS THE SPIRIT’S FILLING? 


In the Bible, the meaning of the phrase “filled 
with the Spirit,” is disclosed, and the filling of the 
Spirit is also seen to be the experience of the early 
Christians. From the Word of God, then, we can 
hope to arrive at some clear understanding of what 


The Filling of the Spirit 31 


is meant by the “filling of the Spirit”; but there 
is no instruction to be gained from such man-made, 
unbiblical terms as “second blessing,” “a second 
work of grace,” “the higher life,’ and various 
phrases used in the perverted statements of the doc- 
trines of sanctification and perfection. An unlimit- 
ed field lies before us when we are told that we 
may be “changed from glory to glory” even into 
the image of Christ, and that by the Spirit (2 Cor. 
3:18). What this transformation might mean to 
a believer and the exact conditions upon which it 
may be realized, must be understood, not from the 
imperfect analysis of experience, but from the exact 
words of revelation. It is quite possible for any 
child of God to make full proof of “that good, and 
acceptable, and perfect will of God” for him. And 
God has promised to work in the believer “both 
to will and to do of his good pleasure.” By His 
power the very “virtues of him who called us out 
of darkness into his marvellous light” and the “mind 
of Christ” may be reproduced in the one who is 
saved. These blessings and the conditions God im- 
poses for their attainment are clearly set forth in 
the Word of God. 

The Spirit does not speak of Himself. His pur- 
pose is to reveal and glorify Christ (John 16: 12- 
15). The Spirit is made known to us by descrip- 
tive titles, such as “The Holy Spirit,’ or “The 
Spirit of God”; but His name is not disclosed. 
Though He does not reveal Himself, He is, never- 
theless, the cause of all true spirituality. His work 
is to produce “the life that is Christ” so complete- 
ly that one could say: “For to me to live is Christ” ; 


32 He That is Spiritual 


but the sufficient power back of this possible out 
living of Christ is the in-living Spirit of God, and 
this as a result of the Spirit’s filling. 


Paul had been saved on the Damascus road and 
there, we may believe, had received the Spirit as 
the “earnest” and “first fruits.” Later, after hav- 
ing entered into the city, Ananias came to him 
and placing his hands on him said, “Brother Saul, 
the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in 
the way as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou 
mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the 
Holy Spirit.” Two results were to be accomplished : 
Saul was to receive his sight, and he was to be filled 
with the Spirit. This, it should be remembered, 
was no part of his salvation. We are then told 
that “immediately there fell from his eyes as it 
had been scales: and he received sight forthwith.” 
There is no record of an emotion, or experience, 
which might be taken as evidence that he had been 
filled with the Spirit. He was filled, nevertheless, 
as definitely as he regained his sight and the evi- 
dence is conclusive; for the record goes on to say: 
“and straightway he preached Christ in the syna- 
gogues, that he is the Son of God” (Acts 9:17-20). 
There is no evidence that the Apostle was conscious 
of the Spirit; he was altogether occupied with 
Christ. Nevertheless, he was “filled with the Spirit” 
and so, in the Spirit’s own time and way, entered 
into the priceless result of an out-lived Christ. The 
Spirit is the cause while the experience of the glory 
and reality of Christ is the effect. 

According to the Scriptures, the Spirit-filled be- 
liever is the divine ideal, whether it be by example, 
or precept. 


The Filling of the Spirit 33 


First, as to example: Christ was “full of the 
Spirit” (Lk. 4:1); each of the members of one 
family, Zacharias, Elisabeth and John, were “filled 
with the Spirit” (Lk. 1:15, 41, 67); and the dis- 
ciples and others were filled again and again after 
their real ministry had begun (Acts 2:4; 4:8, 
31; 6:3; 7:55; 9:17; 11:24; 13:52. Note, also, 
all passages where the Spirit is said to have been 
“upon” believers). 

Second, as to precept: One direct New Testa- 
ment command is given: “And be not drunk with 
wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the 
Spirit” (or, more literally, “be getting filled with the 
Spirit.” Eph. 5:18). Here the form of the verb 
used is somewhat different from that which is used 
in connection with the other ministries of the Spirit. 
The Christian has been born, baptized, indwelt, and 
sealed by the Spirit: he must be getting filled with 
the Spirit. It is the revealed purpose of God that 
the Spirit shall be constantly ministered unto the 
Christian: “He therefore that ministereth to you 
the Spirit” (Gal. 3:5). A Christian, to be spiritual, 
must, then, be filled and re-filled with the Spirit. 
An experience may or may not accompany the 
first entrance into the Spirit-filled life; but, even 
when there is an experience, the Bible knows noth- 
ing of a “second blessing,” or “second work of 
grace,” wherein there will be any less need of the 
mighty enabling power of God tomorrow than 
there has been today. One may learn better how 
to “walk in the Spirit’; but he will never come 
to a moment in this life when he will need to 
walk Jess by the Spirit. The divine resources for 


34 He That is Spiritual 


a moment by moment triumph in Christ are limit- 
less: but the utter need of the helpless creature 
never ceases. 

It is important to note that three times in the 
New Testament the effect of strong drink is put 
over against the Spirit-filled life (Lk. 1:15; Acts 
9: 12-21: Eph. 5:18). As strong drink stimulates 
the physical forces and men are prone to turn to 
it for help over the difficult places, so the child 
of God, facing an impossible responsibility of a 
heavenly walk and service, is directed to the Spirit 
as the source of all sufficiency. Every moment 
in a spiritual life is one of unmeasured need and 
superhuman demands, and the supply of enabling 
power and grace must as constantly be received and 
employed. “As thy day, so shall thy strength be.” 

To be filled with the Spirit is to have the Spirit 
fulfilling in us all that God intended Him to do 
when He placed Him there. To be filled is not 
the problem of getting more of the Spirit: it is 
rather the problem of the Spirit getting more of us. 
We will never have more of the Spirit than the 
anointing which every true Christian has received. 
On the other hand, the Spirit might have more of 
the believer and thus be able more perfectly to 
manifest in him the life and character of Christ. 
A. spiritual person, then, is one who experiences 
the divine purpose and plan in his daily life through 
the power of the indwelling Spirit. The character 
of that life will be the out-lived Christ. The cause 
of that life will be the unhindered indwelling Spirit 
(Eph. 3:16-21; 2 Cor. 3:18). 

The New Testament is clear as to just what the 


The Filling of the Spirit 35 


Spirit would produce in a fully adjusted life, and 
all of this revelation taken together forms the 
Bible definition of spirituality. These under- 
takings are distinctly assigned to the Spirit, and 
are His manifestations in and through the Christian. 
It will be seen that they cover every aspect of the 
believer’s life and responsibility. 


SEVEN MANIFESTATIONS OF THE SPIRIT 


There are seven manifestations of the Spirit, 
and these are said to be experienced only by the 
Spirit-filled believer ; for in the Scriptures, these re- 
sults are never related to any other ministry of the 
Spirit than that of filling. The seven manifesta- 
tions of the Spirit are: 


I. THe Spirir Propuces CHRISTIAN CHAR- 
ACTER, 

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, 
longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meek- 
ness, temperance” (self-control, Gal. 5:22, 23). 

Compressed into these nine words we have not 
only the exact statement as to what Christian char- 
acter is, but a description, as well, of the life that 
Christ lived while here on the earth. It is also 
a statement of that manner of life which He would 
have the Christian experience here and now. These 
nine words form a Bible definition of what is meant 
by the phrase, “For to me to live is Christ.” Though 
the world strives at a shadow of what these nine 
words represent, the reality is foreign to human 
nature, even when that nature is at its best. These 
graces, as here presented, are exotics and are never 


36 He That is Spiritual 


found in human nature unless produced there by 
the power of God. They are the “fruit of the 
Spirit.” Christian character, therefore, is not de- 
veloped, or “built” through human attention and 
energy. The method of attaining unto a character 
by attention and energy, which is now elaborately 
explained and constantly recommended by many, 
is the best the world can do, and that method may 
have some realization within the sphere of the 
shadows the world has chosen as its ideals. The 
child of God is not facing the mere shadows which 
are the ideals of the world, though in ignorance 
he might suppose that he is. He is facing the 
problem of shewing “forth the praises (virtues) of 
him’? who hath called us “out of darkness into 
his marvellous light.” He will find little encourage- 
ment in the Bible to attempt the “building” of 
these characteristics of the Infinite. Human nature 
in its most favorable conditions has never been 
expected to do this. If the aim were no higher 
than the standards of the world, it might seem 
reasonable to try to build a Christian character ; 
but even then, there would be no Scripture to war- 
rant the human struggle. True Christian character 
is the “fruit of the Spirit.” 

The very position of a child of God as a heaven- 
ly citizen demands that these nine graces which 
are the “fruit of the Spirit” shall be present in 
his daily life. He is to “walk worthy” of the call- 
ing wherewith he is called, ‘with all lowliness and 
meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one an- 
other in love.” So, also, on the other hand, his 
priceless fellowship “with the Father and with his 


The Filling of the Spirit 37 


Son” must depend on the presence of these divine 
characteristics. There must be some quality of 
life and character in the Christian with which God 
can have fellowship. But if God finds anything 
like Himself in a human life, He must place it 
there; for He knows full well that such divine 
graces can never appear in a life apart from His 
own power. Thus if He, by His very nature, de- 
mands the heavenly graces as the only possible 
basis for communion with His Spirit-born child, 
He is not unreasonable in such a demand, for He 
does not expect these graces from the flesh, but. 
has made full provision that they may be produced 
by the Spirit. The fact, however, that He has 
designed that they shall be the “fruit of the Spirit” 
changes the whole human responsibility. It is no 
longer something for the human strength to at- 
tempt, nor is it to be done by the human strength 
plus the help of the Spirit. It is not something 
that man can do, even with help. It is “the fruit 
of the Spirit.” True Christian character is pro- 
duced im the believer, but not by the believer. 
Doubtless the Spirit employs every faculty of the 
believer’s being to realize this priceless quality of 
life; yet there is nothing in the believer, of him- 
self, which could produce this result. There is 
not even a spark of these graces within the human 
nature which might be fanned into a fire. Ali must 
be produced in the heart and life by the Spirit. 
Thus the new problem is naturally that of main- 
taining such a relationship to the Spirit as shall 
make it possible for Him to accomplish continually 
what He came into the heart to do. 


38 He That is Spiritual 


What the flesh can, will and must do has been 
stated in the preceding verses of the passage under 
consideration: “Now the works of the flesh are 
manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, 
uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, 
hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, sedi- 
tions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkness, 
revellings, and such like.” ‘But,’ in contrast to 
all this, “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, 
longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, 
temperance” (self-control). “The flesh,’ accord- 
ing to its use in this and similar passages is more 
than the physical body. The term represents all,— 
spirit, soul and body—that the person was before 
he was saved. From that source there can come 
no real spiritual “fruit.’”’ In this very context it 
is stated that “the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, 
and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are 
contrary the one to the other.”* 

There are, then, two principles of life which are 
open to the child of God: the carnal walk which 
is by the energy of the flesh, or “as men,” and 
the spiritual walk which is by the energy of the 
Spirit. This same passage states: “This I say 
then, Walk in the Spirit (lit. by means of the 
Spirit), and ye shall not fulfil the lust (desire) 
of the flesh.” These two principles are absolutely 
opposed to each other and therefore cannot be 
mingled. Walking by means of the Spirit, or “being 
led of the Spirit,” is not the flesh being helped in 
some degree by the Spirit. It is said to be a direct 


*See also page 115. 


The Filling of the Spirit 39 


accomplishment of the Spirit in spite of the opposi- 
tion of the flesh. 

When walking by the Spirit the results are ce- 
lestial: “ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh’: 
“so that ye cannot (when walking by the Spirit) 
do the things that ye (otherwise) would”; “If 
ye are led of the Spirit ye are not under the law”; 
and “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, 
longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, 
temperance” (self-control). 

Such results are priceless. The world looks on 
to the end of a long process of self-training and 
self-repression for the realization of the human 
virtues the sum of which is called “character.” The / 
Christian may realize at once the heavenly virtues | 
of Christ: not by trying; but by a right adjust- 
ment to the indwelling Spirit. This is a revelation, 
quite foreign indeed to man’s habits of thinking 
and acting, and it is to many a “hard saying.” 
This tremendous possibility, as revealed from God, 
will not seem reasonable to one who is not yet done 
with doubt as to the possibility of the supernatural 
being experienced in every moment of life. Such 
doubters should not contend that, because to them 
unreal, the walk by means of the Spirit is not 
God’s gracious provision for His children. The 
revelation that true Christian character is directly 
produced as a fruit of the indwelling Spirit stands 
on the pages of God’s Word. Clear statements are 
made and the Bible teaching on this subject is 
direct and uncomplicated. Not only so, but there 
are many who are joyous witnesses that it is a 
reality in their personal experience. 


oe en 


40) He That is Spiritual 


The nine words which define Christian character 
may be traced through the New Testament and, 
when so traced, it will be found (1) that they are 
always presented as being divine characteristics, 
though they sometimes have a shadow of their real- 
ity in the relationships and ideals of the world; 
(2) they are assuredly expected by God in the 
believer’s life; and (3) they are always produced 
only by the Spirit of God. Each of these nine 
words might profitably be considered at length; 
but space can be given to one only. What is found 
to be true of the one word may measure, to some 
extent, what would be found to be true of all these ~ 
words. 


LOVE 


There is a very real human love; but all Christian ~ 
love, according to the Scriptures, is distinctly a 
manifestation of divine love through the human 
heart. A statement of this is found in Rom. 5:5, 
‘because the love of God is shed abroad (lit. gushes 
forth) in our hearts by (produced, or caused by) 
the Holy Spirit, which is given unto us.” This 
is not the working of the human affection; it is 
rather the direct manifestation of the “love of God” 
passing through the heart of the believer out from 
the indwelling Spirit. It is the realization of the 
last petition of the High Priestly prayer of our 
Lord: “That the love wherewith thou hast loved 
me may be in them” (John 17:26). It is simply » 


God’s love working im and through the believer. It »: 


could not be humanly produced, or even imitated 
and it, of necessity, goes out to the objects of divine 


The Filling of the Spirit 41 


affection and grace, rather than to the objects of 
human desire. A human heart cannot produce 
divine love, but it can experience it. To have a 
heart that feels the compassion of God is to drink ) 
of the wine of heaven. In considering this im- 
parted love of God it should be noted: 

First, The love of God imparted is not ex- 
perienced by the unsaved: “But I know you, that 
ye have not the love of God in you (John 5:42). 


Second, The love of God reaches out for the 
whole world: “For God so loved the world” (John 
3:16); “That he by the grace of God should taste 
death for every man” (Heb. 2:9); “And he is the 
propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, 
but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 
2:2). This is a divine love for the world of lost 
men. It is God’s affection which knows no bounds. 
What is sometimes called “the missionary spirit” 
is none other than that compassion, which brought 
the Son of God from heaven, “gushing forth” 
through a human heart. Interest in lost men is 
not secured by an attempted development of human 
affections: it is immediately realized in a Christian 
heart when there is a right relation to the Spirit of 
God. 

Third, The love of God abhors the present world 
system. “Love not the world, neither the things 
that are in the world. If any man love the world, 
the love of the Father is not in him. For all that 
is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of 
the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, 
but is of the world” (1 John 2:15, 16). Such puri- 


42 He That is Spiritual 


fied love will always be the experience of the one 
in whom the love of God is imparted. 

Fourth, The love of God is toward His Spirit- 
born children. ‘““Much more then, being now justi- 
fied by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath 
through him. For if, when we were enemies, we 
were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, 
much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by 
his life’ (Rom. 5:9, 10); “Christ also loved the 
church, and gave himself for it” (Eph. 5:25). He 
loves His own even though they are wandering 
away, as is revealed in the return of the “prodigal 
son.” “If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, 
and His love is perfected in us” (1 John 4:12). By 
this divine compassion the Christion proves his 
reality before the world: “A new commandment I 
give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have 
loved you, that ye also love one another. By this 
shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye 
have love one to another” (John 13:34, 35). Such 
divine love is also the test of our brotherhood in 
Christ: “Hereby perceive we the love of God, be- 
cause he laid down his life for us: and we ought to 
lay down our lives: for the brethren. But whoso 
hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have 
need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion 
from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?” 
(1 John 3:16, 17) ; “We know we have passed from 
death unto life, because we love the brethren” (1 
John 3:14. 

Fifth, The love of God is without end: “Having 
loved his own which were in the world, he loved 
them unto the end” (eternally, John 13:1). The 


The Filling of the Spirit 43 


love of God in the believer is said to “suffer long” 
and then is kind. 

Sixth, The love of God is toward Israel: “Yea, I 
have loved thee with an everlasting love” (Jer. 
31:3). So the Spirit-filled believer will learn to re- 
joice in the great prophecies and purposes of God 
for that people with whom He is in everlasting 
covenants, and for whom He has an everlasting 
love. 

Seventh, The love of God is sacrificial: “For ye 
know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, 
though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became 
poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich” 
(2 ‘Cor. 8:9). Such an attitude on the part of the 
Son of God toward the eternal riches must, if re- 
produced in the Christian, affect largely his attitude 
toward earthly riches. 

Not only is the love of God sacrificial as t¢ 
heavenly riches; it is sacrificial as to life itself. 
“Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he 
laid down his life for us.” It therefore follows: 
“And we ought to lay down our lives for the 
brethren” (1 John 3:16, 17). The Apostle Paul 
testified: “I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my 
conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy 
Spirit, that I have great heaviness and continual 
sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself 
were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my 
kinsmen according to the flesh” (Rom. 9:1-3). 
The Apostle knew full weil that there was no occa- 
sion for him to be accursed since his Lord had been 
made a curse for all; but he could still be willing 


44. He That is Spiritual 


to be made a curse. Such an experience is the di- 
rect outworking in a human life of the divine love 
which gave Jesus to die under the curse and judg- 
ments of the sin of the world. When this divine 
compassion for lost men is reproduced in the be- 
liever, it becomes the true and sufficient dynamic 
for soul-saving work. 

Thus the mighty heart of God may be mani- 
fested in a human life, and this one word “love,” to- 
gether with the other eight words which indicate 
the fruit of the Spirit, is a representation of true 
Christian character. The other eight words, when 
traced in the Scriptures, will also prove to be divine 
graces which are realized in the human heart only 
as they are imparted. “My joy shall be in you.” 
“My peace I give unto you.” 

These divine graces are not produced in every 
Christian’s heart. They are produced in those who 
are “by the Spirit walking.” 


II. Tuer Sprrit Propuces CuristiIAN SERVICE. 


Here again, turning from human reason to Bible 
doctrine, we discover Christian service to be a direct 
exercise of the energy of the Spirit through the be- 
liever. ‘From within him shall flow rivers of liv- 
ing water. But this spake he of the Spirit” (John 
7:38, 389, R. V.).. Human energy could never pro- 
duce “living waters,” and certainly not in “rivers.” 
This statement is keyed to the Infinite. The human, 
at best, could be no more than the channel, or in- 
strument, for the divine outflow. 

The very service of the Christian, like his salva- 
tion, has been designed in the eternal plan and pur- 


The Filling of the Spirit 45 


pose of God: “For we are his workmanship, created 
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath 
before ordained that we should walk in them” (Eph. 
2:10). According to this passage, God hath be- 
fore ordained a very special service for each indi- 
vidual to perform, and the doing of these particular 
and individual ministries constitutes “good works” 
according to the divine estimates. Any service 
other than that which was foreordained for the in- 
dividual, though valuable in itself, cannot be called 
“good works” because it is not the personal out- 
working of the will of God. The discovery and 
realization of “good works” is not experienced by 
all believers, but only by those who have presented 
their bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto 
God; who are not “conformed to this world,” but 
are “transformed” (transfigured) by the renewing 
of their minds (Rom. 12:1, 2). 

Christian service, according to the New Testa- 
ment, is the exercise of a “gift.” The Bible use of 
the word “gift” should not be confused with the 
world’s conception of a “gifted person.” The 
thought of the world concerning a gifted person is 
of one who, by physical birth, is especially able to 
accomplish certain things. Such natural ability the 
Spirit will doubtless employ; but a “gift,” in the 
Bible use of the word, is a direct undertaking, or 
manifestation, of the Spirit working through the 
believer. It is the Spirit of God doing something, 
and using the believer to accomplish it; rather than, 
the believer doing something, and calling on God’ 
for help in the task. It is the “work of the Lord”’ 
in which we are to “abound.” According to the 


46 | He That is Spiritual 


Word, the Spirit produces Christian service as He 
produces the graces of Christ in and through the 
believer. Every faculty of the human instrument 
will be employed in the work. That human instru- 
ment will know what it is to be weary and worn in 
the service. Human energy, however, could never 
produce the divine results which are anticipated, 
and the Scriptures jealously contend that true 
Christian service is a direct “manifestation of the 
Spirit”: ““Now there are diversities of gifts, but the 
same Spirit.” Though no two Christians are doing 
the same service, the Spirit produces the energy and 
accomplishes the individual and particular work in 
each. “And there are differences of administra- 
tions, but the same Lord. And there are diversities 
of operations, but it is the same God which worketh 
(energizes) all in all. But the manifestation of the 
Spirit is given to every (Christian) man to profit 
withal. For to one is given by the Spirit the word 
of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by 
the same Spirit; to another faith by the same 
Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same 
Spirit; to another the working of miracles; to an- 
other prophecy; tc another discerning of spirits; to 
another divers kinds of tongues; to another the in- 
terpretation of tongues: but all these worketh (are 
wrought by) that one and the selfsame Spirit, divid- 
ing to every man severally as he will” (1 Cor. 
12 :4-11). 

A “gift,” then, is a “manifestation of the Spirit,” 
or service divinely produced by the Spirit, and “as 
he will.” Thus it is clear that there can be no exer- 
cise of a gift through an unyielded life, 


The Filling of the Spirit 47 


It is probable that the “gifts” enumerated in the 
Bible were the outstanding manifestations of the 
Spirit according to the conditions and time when 
the record was written. Some have proved abiding 
to the present hour. Other manifestations of the 
Spirit have evidently ceased. This is not due to 
failing piety after the first generation of Christians. 
There is no evidence of a decrease of piety. Those 
manifestations of the Spirit which have ceased were 
doubtless related to the introduction rather than the 
continuation of the work of the Spirit in this age. 
This is not without precedent: When Christ was 
born, a star was seen in the East, the voices of the 
angelic host were heard and most unusual condi- 
tions obtained. The star did not continue to shine. 
The angel voices were not always heard. So it was 
at the advent of the Spirit and the introduction of 
His new work in the world. That these early mani- 
festations have ceased according to the purpose of 
God, has been the belief of the most devout saints 
of all past generations. Yet in these last days when 
Satan is employing every available issue to confuse 
and divide the Christian body, to divert their energy 
and prevent their testimony, there are those who de- 
mand a return to Pentecostal manifestations as the 
only realization of the full ministry of the Spirit. 
Such professing Christians are bold to condemn the 
spirituality of saints of all generations who have not 
accepted their teachings. They are evidently lack- 
ing in the knowledge and regard for those gifts 
which in the Scriptures are said to be of primary 
importance in contrast to lesser gifts. If God is 
calling His people to a renewal of all the early mani- 


48 He That is Spiritual 


festations of the Spirit, why is it confined to a little 
sect, when there are tens of thousands outside that 
group who are yielded and ready to do His will but 
are never led into such manifestations? If Satan is 
using the fact of these early manifestations of the 
Spirit as an occasion to confuse and divide 
Christians, all his supernatural power will be dis- 
played and his most subtle deceptions will be im- 
posed to produce what might seem to be the work 
of God. Many who have been delivered from 
these “Pentecostal” beliefs and manifestations have 
since found the more vital things of the Spirit and 
are deeply concerned for those whom they deem to 
be yet blinded and self-satisfied in error. 

Christian service is not always essential to spiritu- 
ality. If itis His will for us, we are just as spiritual 
when resting, playing, ill or infirm as when we are 
active in service. Our one concern is to know and 
do His will; but normally, true spirituality is ex- 
pressed and exercised in the ministries committed 
to believers and which can be accomplished only by 
the imparted power of God. The ministry of re- 
storation is limited to spiritual believers only, ac- 
cording to Gal. 6:1: “Brethren, if a man be over- 
taken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such 
an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thy- 
self, lest thou also be tempted.” How many heart- 
aches would be avoided if this plain instruction 
were heeded! | 

The exact service and individual responsibility of 
the Christian will never be the same in any two lives 
and so, in a very real way, no two manifestations of 
the Spirit will be exactly the same. There is an in- 
dividual service “foreordained” for each child of 


The Filling of the Spirit 49 


God, and there are particular “rivers of living 
water” to flow out from each inner life. 

Any Christian may enter into his own “good 
works,” since the enabling Spirit is already indwell- 
ing him; but only those do enter in who are yielded 
to God; for it is service according to His will. How 
little this great fact is appreciated! How often 
Christians are exhorted to expend more energy and 
employ all their natural powers with the hope that 
they may render Christian service! There is evi- 
dently a more effectual way to secure the “abiding 
fruit” in Christian lives. In the Scriptures we read 
that the “reasonable service,” even the “good and 
acceptable and perfect will of God,” is rendered 
when the child of God presents his whole body to 
God. Such yielded believers need little exhortation, 
for the Spirit is mighty through them, and He will 
employ every available faculty and resource of 
their lives. Other Christians who are unyielded are 
little changed by human appeal. Brazen courage 
enough to force one into fleshly undertakings is not 
the condition of true Christian service. The one 
issue is that of a yielded heart and life through 
which the indwelling Spirit will certainly manifest 
His mighty power. 


III. Tuer Sprrit TEACHES. 


The teaching manifestation of the Spirit in the 
believer is described by Christ in John 16:12-15: 
“T have yet many things to say unto you, but ye can- 
not bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of 
truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for 
he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he 
shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you 


50 He That is Spiritual 


things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall 
receive of mine and shall show it unto you. All 
things that the Father hath are mine: therefore 
said I, that he shall take of mine and shall shew it 
unto you.” 

Here is a promise that the child of God may enter 
the highest realm of knowable truth as revealed in 
the Word of God. “All things that the Father 
hath” are included in the things of Christ and 
“things to come” and these form the boundless field 
into which the believer may be led by the divine 
Teacher. This storehouse of divine reality will no 
doubt engage our minds and hearts for ever; but 
Christians may be even now entering and progress- 
ing in these realms of truth and grace. “Now we 
have received * * * the Spirit which is of God; 
that we might know the things that are freely given 
to us of God” (1 Cor. 2:12). “But the anointing 
which ye have received of him abideth in you, and 
ye need, not that any man teach you: but as the 
same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is 
truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, 
ye shall abide in him” (1 John 2:27). 

Beyond all the range of human knowledge there 
are things “which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, 
neither have entered into the heart of man; * * * 
but God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit.” 
However, such truth is revealed by the Spirit only 
to spiritual Christians. To some who were truly 
saved the Apostle wrote: “And I, brethren, could 
not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto 
carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed 
you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye 
were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye 


The Filling of the Spirit 51 


able” (1 Cor. 3:1, 2). This is a sad disclosure of 
the state of some believers. Though born again 
and possessing the Spirit, their carnality of life 
precludes them from understanding, or progress- 
ing in, the “deep things of God.” Some, regardless 
of educational qualifications, go to the Scriptures 
of Truth as “those that find great spoil.” His 
Word, to them, is “sweeter also than honey and 
the honey comb.” To others, regardless of educa- 
tional qualifications, there is no discovery and reve- 
lation of Truth. The Bible is read by these as a 
duty, if read at all. This is a tragedy in the realm 
of infinite issues. It is not alone the question of 
personal pleasure and profit in the marvels of di- 
vine Truth: it involves the realities of knowledge, 
or ignorance; obedience, or disobedience for want 
of understanding ; power, or weakness; helpfulness, 
or hurtfulness in the life and testimony of the one 
who, because of the indwelling Spirit, might be 
coming to know and to impart, something of the 
boundless Truth of God. No amount of human 
education can correct this defect. The root trouble 
is carnality, and when this is cured, the “eyes of 
the heart” will be enlightened, and the inflow of 
sanctifying Truth will be continuous and unbroken. 
“He that is spiritual discerneth all things.” 


IV. Tue Sprrir ProMoTes PRAISE AND 
THANKSGIVING. 

Immediately following the injunction of Eph. 
5:18 to be “filled with the Spirit,” there is given a 
description of the normal results of such a filling: 
“Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and 


52 He That is Spiritual 


spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your 
heart to the Lord; giving thanks always for all 
things unto God and the Father in the name of out 
Lord Jesus Christ.” All things are working to- 
gether for good to the child of God, and it is rea- 
sonable that he should give thanks always for all 
things. This can be done through the Spirit Who 
knows the “all things” of God. The living creatures 
in the divine Presence cease not to cry, “Holy! 
Holy! Holy!” It is equally becoming the heavenly 
citizen that he render unbroken and endless praise 
and thanksgiving to God. 

It follows, then, that thanksgiving for all things 
and praise unto God are the direct products of the 
Spirit in the one whom He fills. These great reali- 
ties are foreign to the finite heart at its best. Not 
all Christians experience them; but all Christians 
may experience them as certainly as the power has 
been provided through the indwelling Spirit. The 
value of this particular manifestation of the Spirit 
can scarcely be known by the human mind. Praise 
and thanksgiving are distinctly addressed to God. 
We cannot know what their full outflow may mean 
to Him, or what His loss may be when this mani- 
festation is not realized in the believer’s life. “Halle- 
lujah!” “Praise ye the Lord!” “Rejoice ever 
more!” 


V. Tue Sprrit LEADS. 


Since the whole discussion concerning the be- 
liever’s life in the Spirit, according to the Epistle 
to the Romans, is consummated in the beginning of 
the eighth chapter, that which follows in the chap- 


The Filling of the Spirit 53 


ter should be considered as being true only of those 
who have been adjusted to the larger life and walk 
in the Spirit. Three distinct manifestations of the 
Spirit are found in this portion of the Scriptures, 
and these serve to complete the whole revelation as 
to the exact work of the Spirit im and through the 
one whom He fills. 

In Rom. 8:14 it is stated: “For as many as are 
led of the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” . 
This, it may be concluded, is the normal Christian 
experience according to the plan and purpose of 
God. It is equally true that some Christians are ab- 
normal to the extent that they are not constantly 
led of the Spirit; for it is said also in Gal. 5:18, 
“But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the 
law.” The walk in the Spirit, or the life that is led 
of the Spirit, is one of the great new realities of 
this age of grace; yet some believers are so far re- 
moved from this blessing that their daily lives are 
shaped and adapted to the order and relationships 
of the past dispensation. It is one of the supreme 
glories of this age that the child of God and citizen 
of heaven may live a superhuman life, in harmony 
with his heavenly calling, by an unbroken walk in 
the Spirit. The leading of the Spirit is not experi- 
enced by all in whom the Spirit dwells; for such 
leading must depend on a willingness to go where 
He, in His infinite wisdom and love, would have us 


go. 
VI. Tue Sprrir WITNESSETH WITH Our Sprrirt. 


In Rom. 8:16 it is stated, “The Spirit himself 
beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the 


54 He That is Spiritual 


children of God.” Not only does He actualize this 
relationship unto us, but He would actualize every 
great fact which we have taken by faith. “That 
he would grant you, according to the riches of his 
glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit 
in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your 
hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded 
in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints 
what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and 
height; and to know the love of Christ, which 
passeth knowledge, that ye may be filled with all 
the fulness of God” (Eph. 3:16-19). “And they 
said one to another, Did not our hearts burn within 
us, while he talked with us by the way, and while 
he opened to us the scriptures?’ The supreme 
passion of the Apostle Paul was stated in five 
words: “That I may know him.” 

By this particular manifestation of the Spirit, 
unseen things become blessedly real. There is 
such a thing as “ever learning and never coming 
to the knowledge of the truth.” Truth must be- 
come real to us. We may know by faith that we 
are forgiven and justified forever: it is quite another 
thing to have a heart experience wherein all is as 
real as it is true. We may believe in our security 
and coming glory: it is different to feel its power 
in the heart. We may believe in “things to come” 
through the exact teaching of the Word: it is a 
precious experience to have it made actual to us 
by the Spirit that “the Lord is at hand” and that 
our eternal glory with Him may be but a moment 
removed. Such heart experience is provided in the 
boundless grace of God for each of His children; 


The Filling of the Spirit 55 


but only those who abide in Him can know this 
ecstasy of life. 


VII. Tue Spirit MAKETH INTERCESSION FOR 
Us. 


Such a promise is recorded in Rom. 8:26 and 
refers to a particular form of prayer. Intercession 
must be considered as being limited to that minis- 
try wherein one stands between God and his fellow 
man. It is simply praying for others. Under those 
conditions, we know not what to pray for, but the 
Spirit helpeth our infirmities. Prayer on behalf of 
others is doubtless the greatest ministry committed 
to the child of God and a ministry for which he 
is, and always will be, least prepared within him- 
self. We may become familiar with the truth we 
preach; but the field of intercession is new, un- 
known and unknowable. A few Christians have 
entered this boundless ministry of prayer for others 
in the power of the Spirit. Not all have entered; 
but all Christians may enter for in them the in- 
terceding Spirit dwells. 


WHAT SPIRITUALITY IS, AND WHAT IT IS NOT 


It may be said in conclusion, that a spiritual 
Christian is a Spirit-filled Christian in whom the 
unhindered Spirit is manifesting Christ by produc- 
ing a true Christian character, which is the “fruit 
of the Spirit’; by energizing true Christian service 
through the exercise of a “gift of the Spirit”; by 
personal instruction in the Word of God; by in- 
spiring true praise and thanksgiving; by leading 
the believer in an unbroken “walk in the Spirit’; 


56 He That is Spiritual 


by actualizing into celestial heart-ecstasy that which 
has been taken by faith concerning the positions 
and possessions in Christ; and by inclining, illumi- 
nating and empowering the believer in the prayer 
of intercession. 

True spirituality is a seven-fold manifestation 
of the Spirit in and through the one whom He 
fills. It is a divine output of the life, rather than 
a mere cessation of things which are called 
“worldly.” True spirituality does not consist in 
what one does not do, it is rather what one does. 
The unregenerate would not be saved if he should 
cease sinning; he would not be born of God. The 
Christian would not be spiritual if he should ab- 
stain from worldliness: he would possess none of 
the manifestations of the Spirit. 

The world and “worldly” Christians turn to so- 
called “worldly” things because they discover in 
them an anesthetic to deaden the pain of an empty 
heart and life. The anesthetic, which is often 
quite innocent in itself, is not so serious a matter 
as the empty heart and life. Little is gained toward 
true spirituality when would-be soul doctors have 
succeeded in persuading the afflicted to get on with- 
out the anesthetic. If these instructors do not 
present the reality of consolation and filling for 
heart and life which God has provided, the condi- 
tion will not be improved. How misleading is the 
theory that to be spiritual one must abandon play, 
diversion and helpful amusement! Such a con- 
ception of spirituality is born of a. morbid human 
conscience. It is foreign to the Word of God. It 
is a device of Satan to make the blessings of God 


The Filling of the Spirit D7 


seem -abhorant to young people who are overflow- 
ing with physical life and energy. It is to be re- 
eretted that there are those who in blindness are 
so emphasizing the negatives of the Truth that 
the impression is created that spirituality is op- 
posed to joy, liberty and naturalness of expression 
in thought and life in the Spirit. Spirituality is 
not a pious pose. It is not a “Thou shall not”: 
it is “Thou shalt.’ It flings open the doors into 
the eternal blessedness, energies and resources of 
God. It is a serious thing to remove the element 
of relaxation and play from any life. We cannot 
be normal physically, mentally or spiritually if we 
neglect this vital factor in human life. God has 
provided that our joy shall be full. 

It is also to be noted that one of the character- 
istics of true spirituality is that it supersedes lesser 
desires and issues. The Biblical, as well as prac- 
tical, cure for “worldliness’” among Christians is 
so to fill the heart and life with the eternal blessings 
of God that there will be a joyous preoccupation 
and absentmindedness to unspiritual things. A 
dead leaf that may have clung to the twig through 
the external raging storms of Winter, will silently 
fall to the ground when the new flow of sap from 
within has begun in the Spring. The leaf falls 
because there is a new manifestation of life press- 
ing from within outward. A dead leaf cannot re- 
main where a new bud is springing, nor can worldli- 
ness remain where the blessings of the Spirit are 
flowing. We are not called upon to preach against 
“dead leaves.” We have a message of the im- 
perishable Spring. It is of the outflow of the 


58 He That is Spiritual 


limitless life of God. When by the Spirit ye are 
walking ye cannot do the things that ye otherwise 
would. 

It is the Spirit’s work to produce in the believer a 
life which is heavenly in character. This life is 
inimitable ; yet it is commonly supposed that spiritu- 
ality consists in struggling to observe a particular 
set of rules, or the imitation of a heavenly ideal. 
Spirituality is not gained by struggling: it is to be 
claimed. It is not imitation of a heavenly ideal: it 
is the impartation of the divine power which alone 
can realize that ideal. ‘‘The letter killeth, but the 
Spirit giveth life.” The written Word reveals the 
character of the spiritual life and exhorts to its ful- 
filment; but it as faithfully reveals that the life 
can be lived only by the in-wrought power of God. 
We are to “serve in newness of spirit, and not in 
the oldness of the letter.” There is little blessing 
for any Christian until he abandons the principle of 
living by rules and learns to walk by the Spirit in 
God-ordained liberty and in fresh and unbroken 
fellowship with his Lord. The divine precepts will 
then be kept by the power of God. 

It is possible to be born of the Spirit, baptized 
with the Spirit, indwelt by the Spirit, and sealed 
with the Spirit and yet to be without the filling 
of the Spirit. The first four of these ministries 
are already perfectly accomplished in every believer 
from the moment he is saved; for they depend 
upon the faithfulness of the Father to His child. 
The last of these ministries, the filling of the 
Spirit, has not been experienced by every Christian ; 


The Filling of the Spirit 59 


for it depends on the faithfulness of the child to 
his Father. . 

Spirituality is not gained in answer to prevailing 
prayer; for there is little Scripture to warrant the 
believer to be praying for the filling of the Spirit. 
It is the normal work of the Spirit to fill the one 
who is rightly adjusted to God. The Christian will 
always be filled while he is making the work of 
the Spirit possible in his life. 

So, also, spirituality, or the filling of the Spirit, 
does not depend upon patient waiting. The 
disciples waited ten days for the advent of the 
Spirit into the world, and He came as they were 
taught to expect. They were not waiting for their 
own personal filling alone; but rather for the whole 
new ministry of the Spirit to be begun, as it was 
on the Day of Pentecost. When He came, all who 
were prepared in heart and life were instantly 
filled with the Spirit and no believer has had oc- 
casion to wait for the Spirit’ since that day. 

Neither prayer nor waiting, therefore, are con- 
ditions of spirituality. 

Of the three Biblical conditions upon which a 
Christian may be spiritual, or Spirit-filled, two are 
directly connected with the issue of sin in the 
believer’s daily life, and one with the yielding of 
the will to God. These three conditions are now 
to be considered. 


CHAPTER IV 


 *GRIBVE NOT TEER Ys ihur ry ” 


THe First CONDITION OF TRUE SPIRITUALITY. 


Christians are appointed to live every moment of - 


their lives with the Holy Spirit of God. Life for 
them, is a moment by moment vital union with 
One Who is infinitely holy. Sin, therefore, in a 
Christian, is the very opposite of any true mani- 
festation of the Spirit in the life. 


WHAT IT IS THAT GRIEVES THE SPIRIT 


Known sin destroys spirituality. It is necessarily 
so; for where known sin is tolerated in the believer’s 
daily life, the Spirit, Who indwells him, must then 
turn from His blessed ministry through him, to a 
pleading ministry to him. The Bible does not teach 
that the Spirit withdraws because of known sin in 
the one whom He indwells: He is rather grieved by 
the sin. 

A child of God lives either with a grieved or an 
ungrieved Spirit. It may be reasonably questioned, 
in the light of God’s Word, whether the saved 
person, having received the Spirit, ever lives by 
the dictates of his conscience. The standards of 
human conscience must give way to a standard of 
moral judgment which is infinitely higher. A 
Christian’s manner of life either grieves or does 
not grieve the Holy Spirit of God. The Apostle 
Paul writes of the fact that his conscience bore him 


» 


“Grieve Not the Holy Spirit” 61 


witness in the Holy Spirit, and it is quite probable 
that the Spirit uses the conscience as a human 
faculty ; but He as certainly imparts to it the new 
standard of the infinite holiness of God. The in- 
junction to the one in whom the Spirit dwells is, 
“And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby | 
ye are sealed unto the day of redemption” (Eph. 
4:32). 

A true spiritual life must depend then, to a 
large degree, upon the right understanding and 
adjustment concerning the issues of sin in the 
believer’s daily life. About this God has spoken 
explicitly, and it will be found that the Bible teach- 
ing on the subject of the sins of Christians is two- 
fold: (1) God has provided that the sin of His 
child may be prevented, and (2) He has also pro- 
vided that the effect of sin, when it has been com- 
mitted, may be cured. 

The divine plan for the cure of the effect of the 
believer’s sins is the theme of this chapter; while 
the prevention of sin will be the subject of a later 
chapter.* It is imperative that this two-fold classi- 
fication of the purpose of God in dealing with sin 
in His children be recognized. 


THE CURE OF THE EFFECTS OF SIN IN A CHRISTIAN 


Having sinned, what must a Christian do? What 
is the divine condition for the cure of the havoc 
of sin in the spirituality of the believer? No at- 
tempt should be made here to name sins which 
hinder the Spirit. He is grieved by any, and all, 


*See Chapter VI. 


62 He That is Spiritual 


known sin, and He is abundantly able to convince 
the one in. whom He dwells of the particular sin, or 
sins, which grieve Him. So, also, it is an issue 
only of known sin; for no person can deal intel- 
ligently with unknown sin. There will always be 
unlikeness to God, about which there is, and could 
be, no clear understanding. This first condition of 
true spirituality is centered upon definite matters. 
It is sin that has, by the grieving of the Spirit, 
become a distinct issue; for the term ‘ ‘grieving the 
Spirit” refers as much to the heart experience of 
the one in whom He dwells as to the personal at- 
titude of the Spirit towards sin. The issue iS, 
therefore, a well-defined wrong, about which the 
child of God has been made conscious by the Spirit. 
Such known sin must be dealt with according to 
the exact direction of the Word of God. 

In the Bible, the divine offer and condition for 
the cure of sin in an unsaved person, is crystalized 
into one word, “believe”; for the forgiveness of 
sin with the unsaved is UBab offered as an in- 
divisible part of the whole divine work of salva- 
tion. The saving work of God includes many 
mighty undertakings other than the forgiveness of 
sin, and salvation depends only upon believing. It 
is not possible to separate some one issue from 
the whole work of His saving grace, such as for- 
giveness, and claim this apart from the indivisible 
whole. It is, therefore, a erievous error to direct 
an unsaved person to seek the forgiveness of his 
sins as a separate issue. A sinner minus his sins 
would not be a Christian; for salvation is more 
than subtraction: it is addition. “I give unto them 


“Grieve Not the Holy Spirit” 63 


eternal life.” Thus the sin question with the un- 
saved will be cured as a part of, but never separate 
from, the whole divine work of salvation, and this 
salvation depends upon believing. 

In like manner, also, in the Bible, the divine 
offer and condition of cure for the effects of sin 
in the saved person’s spiritual life is crystalized in- 
to one word, “confess.” The vital meaning of 
this one word and its bearing on the question of 
the cure of sin in a child of God is an important, 
though much neglected, doctrine of the Word of 
God. The way back to blessing for a sinning saint 
is the same, whether before the cross, or after the 
cross, and the whole testimony on this aspect of 
truth is contained in seven major passages. 


‘THE SEVEN MAJOR PASSAGES 


First, Curist ALonE CAN CLEANSE From SIN 
(John 13:1-11). 

The fact that the sins of Christians must be 
cleansed by Christ alone is revealed in John 13:1-11. 
The passage is at the very beginning of the 
Upper Room Conversation. A few hours before, 
Christ had given His farewell address to the 
nation Israel; but in the upper room He is speak- 
ing His farewell words to His disciples, not as 
Jews, ‘but as those who are “clean every whit.” 
Of them He also said, “Now ye are clean through 
the word which I have spoken unto you.” In this 
conversation He is anticipating the new conditions 
and relationships which were to obtain after Hié 
cross (John 16:4). It is important to note that 
His first teaching concerning a Christian’s present 


64 He That is Spiritual 


relationship to God was concerning the cleansing 
of defilement, thus signifying its importance in the 
divine estimation. The way of salvation has been 
revealed in the preceding chapters of this Gospel; 
but beginning with chapter thirteen, He is speak- 
ing to those who are saved, and speaking to them 
of the divine cleansing from their defilement. 

He arose from supper, laid aside His outer gar- 
ments, girded Himself with a towel (the insignia of 
a servant), poured water into a bason and began to 
wash the disciples feet. This is a miniature of a 
much larger undertaking, when He arose from the 
fellowship with His Father in heaven and laid aside 
the garments of His glory and humbled Himself, 
taking the form of a servant and became obedient 
unto death, even the death of the cross, in order that 
we might be washed with the washing of regenera- 
tion (Tit. 3:5). In the larger undertaking there is 
the whole cleansing: in the other, there is a partial 
cleansing which is typified by the cleansing of the 
feet only, of the one who is otherwise “clean every 
swhit.’? 

This two-fold cleansing was also typified by the 
‘prescribed cleansing for the Old Testament priest. 
‘When he entered his ministry he was given a 
ceremonial bath, which was of his whole body, 
once for all (Ex. 29: 4). Yet he was required to 
bathe his hands and feet at the brazen laver be- 
fore every ministry and service (Ex. 30: 17-21). 
So the New Testament believer, though once for 
all cleansed as to his salvation, must also be 


“Grieve Not the Holy Spirit” 65 


cleansed from every defilement, and Christ alone 
can make him clean. 


SECOND, CONFESSION Is THE ONE CONDITION OF 
FELLOWSHIP, FORGIVENESS AND CLEANSING (1 
John 1:1-2:2). 

1 John 1: 1-2: 2 is the second major passage con- 
cerning the Father’s dealing with His children who 
have sinned. John, the expert witness concerning 
the blessedness of unbroken communion and fellow- 
ship with the Father and with His Son, writes these 
things that we also may have fellowship. In this 
passage the issue is plainly that of known sin. “God 
is light,” or perfect holiness, If we should say that 
we have fellowship with Him and are, nevertheless, 
walking in darkness (known sin), we lie and do 
not the truth. On the other hand, if we walk in 
the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship 
with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. 
Sinless perfection is not demanded by this passage. 
It is not a command for the Christian to become 
the light, or what God alone is: it is rather that 
there may be an.immediate adjustment to the light 
which God may have shed into the life by - His 
Spirit. He has required of us confession. When 
He convinces us of sin, or is grieved by sin, that 
sin is to be dealt with at once. There is only one 
condition for the cure of the effect of sin in the 
believer’s life. “If we confess our sins, he is 
faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to 
cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (vy. 9), It 
is not mercy’and kindness: He is faithful and just 
to forgive, and it is all granted on the one con- 


66 He That is Spiritual 


dition of confession. He is “faithful” to His child; 
for we are dealing always and only with our Father 
(2:2). He is “just” because the atoning blood has 
been shed to cover the condemning power of every 
sin (John 5:24). Thus in perfect righteousness 
the Father’s forgiveness is exercised toward His 
child. 

‘Divine forgiveness is never an act of leniency. 
God can righteously forgive only when the full 
satisfaction of His holiness has been met. The 
root meaning of the word forgive, in the Scriptures, 
is remission. It represents the divine act of sep- 
arating the sin from the sinner. Human forgive- 
ness is merely a lifting of the penalty: divine for- 
giveness is exercised only when the penalty, accord- 
ing to the terms of His infinite righteousness, has 
first been executed on the sinner, or his Substitute. 
This was true in the Old Testament: ‘The priest 
shall make an atonement for his sin that he hath 
committed, and it shall be forgiven him” (Lev. 
4:35). The forgiveness was possible with God, 
only when there had been a full atonement for sin. 
So in the New Testament, or after the sacrifice has 
been made at the cross for us, we are told that 
the blood of Christ has become the sufficient atone- 
ment for our sins. “This is my blood of the new 
testament, which is shed for many for the remis- 
sion of sins” (Mt. 26:28). All divine forgiveness, 
whether toward the unsaved or the saved, is now 
based on the shed blood of Christ. His blood an- 
swers the last demand of a holy God. When 
we were saved He forgave us “all trespasses” (Col. 
2:18). This is judicial forgiveness and means the 


“Grieve Not the Holy Spirit” 67 


removal of the grounds of condemnation forever. 
There is still forgiveness to be exercised toward 
the sinning child, but this is parental. It is not 
exercised in order to rescue the child from destruc- 
tion and condemnation; but it is exercised in order 
to restore him from a state wherein he is out of 
fellowship, into the full blessing of communion 
with the Father and with His Son. It is wholly 
within the family circle and the restoration is unto 
the full enjoyment of those blessings. It is not 
restoration to sonship, of that the Bible knows 
nothing. It is restoration to fellowship. 

The defilement of a Christian may be forgiven 
and cleansed on the one condition of a confession 
which is prompted by true heart-repentance. We 
are not forgiven our sins because we ask to be for- 
given. It is when we confess our sins that we are 
forgiven. It will not do to substitute prayer for 
confession. There is no Scripture for the child of 
God under grace which justifies such a substitu- 
tion even though a multitude who have made no 
confession are praying for the forgiveness of sin. 

The truth embodied in this passage cannot apply 
to unsaved people. They are forgiven as a part 
of their whole salvation when they believe. The 
child of God is forgiven when he makes a full 
confession. 


TuirD, SELF-JUDGMENT Saves From CHASTISE- 
MENT (1 Cor. 11:31, 32). 

The third major passage related to the cure of 
the effects of sin in the believer’s life is found 
(without reference to the important context) in 


68 He That is Spiritual 


1 Cor. 11:31, 32: “For if we would judge our- 
selves, we should not be judged. But when we are 
judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we 
should not be condemned with the world.” The 
important additional revelation gained from this 
passage, is in the order it discloses. The Father 
is here seen to be waiting for the self-judgment, 
or confession, of His sinning child; but if the child 
will not judge himself by a full confession of his 
sin, then the Father must judge him. When the 
child is thus judged by the Father, he is chastened. 
This, it should be noted, is with a definite purpose 
in view: “That we should not be condemned with 
the world.” There may be chastisement for the 
child of God; but there can be no condemnation. 
His wonderful grace as a Father is seen in His 
willingness to wait until His child has judged him- 
self; but as a righteous Father, He cannot pass 
over the unconfessed sin of His child. If self- 
judgment is neglected, He must administer chastise- 
ment. 


FourtH, CHASTISEMENT IS THE FATHER’s Cor- 
RECTION AND TRAINING OF His SINNING CHILD 
(Heb. 12: 8-15). 


The central passage in the Bible on chastisement 
is found in Heb. 12:3-15 and should be included 
as one of the major passages upon the cure of 
the effect of sin in a Chrisian’s life. By this Scrip- 
ture we understand that chastisement is the Father’s 
correction of every child; for He has said, “whom 


“Grieve Not the Holy Spirit” 69: 


the Lord loveth He chasteneth,” and, in chastise- 
ment, “God dealeth with you as with sons.” Such 
correction as is accomplished by chastisement has 
in view “that we might be partakers of his holi- 
ness,’’* 

Light is given us in God’s revelation as to what 
general form His chastisement may take. It is 
reasonable to conclude that the Father deals in- 
dividually with His children and that His ways are 
manifold. 

In 1 Cor. 11:30 we read concerning the judg- 
ments of the Father because of sin in His children: 
“For this cause many are weak and sickly among 
you, and many sleep.” Weakness, sickliness and 
even death may then be included within those means 
which the Father may employ with His unyielding 
child. It must not be concluded that all weakness, 
sickliness and death among believers is a chastise- 
ment from God. The passage teaches that chastise- 

ment may take these particular forms, 

In John 15:1-17 there is teaching concerning 
the importance of abiding in Christ. This is but 
another term meaning the life of true spirituality. 
In this Scripture some of the results of not abiding 
in Christ are disclosed. The branch that does not 
bear fruit is lifted up out of its place. It does 
not cease to be a branch; but is evidently taken 
from this relationship to be “with the Pord Chis 
statement corresponds with the statement that 
“many sleep.” Failure to abide in Christ results,. 
also, in loss of effectiveness in prayer, loss of 


*See also page 92. 


70 He That is Spiritual 


power in fruit-bearing and service, and loss of 
joy and fellowship in the Lord.* 

The very weight of the hand of God may be 
exceedingly heavy. David describes his experience 
when he “kept silence,” or refused to acknowledge 
his sin: “When I kept silence, my bones waxed 
old through my roaring all the day long. For 
day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my 
moisture is turned into the drought of summer. 
I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and my iniquity 
have I not hid. I said, I will confess my trans- 
gression unto the LORD; and thou forgavest the 
iniquity of my sin. For this shall every one that 
is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest 
be found” (Ps. 32:3-6). 

The weight of the hand of God is like an un- 
ceasing ache of the soul. It is none other than a 
grieved Spirit; but His loving hand may be still 
heavier in correction if we fail to say as did David: 
“I acknowledge my sin unto thee.’ 


Pirro, AN EXAMPLE oF CHRISTIAN REPENTANCE 
(2 Cor. 7%: 8-11). 

In 2 Cor. 7: 8-11 an example of true sorrow for 
sin on the part of a Christian is recorded. The 
Apostle, in his first letter to the Corinthians, has 
been used of the Spirit to convince them of sin, 
and in this fifth major passage we are given an 
account of their sorrow for sin and the effect of 
this sorrow in their lives. Much light is given 
here on the transforming effect of repentance and 


*See also page 89, 


“Grieve Not the Holy Spirit’’ 71 


confession in a Christian’s life. The passage fol- 
lows: “For though I made you sorry with a letter, 
I do not repent, though I did repent: for I per- 
ceive that the same epistle hath made you sorry, 
though it were but for a season. Now I rejoice, 
not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed 
to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a god- 
ly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in 
nothing. For godly sorrow worketh repentance to 
salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of 
the world worketh death. For behold the selfsame 
thing, that ye sorrowed with a godly sort, what 
carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing 
of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, 
yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what 
revenge !” 

Such is the transforming power of true repent- 
ance and confession in the life of a believer. 


SIXTH, THE REPENTANCE, CONFESSION AND RE- 
STORATION OF AN OLD TESTAMENT SaINnT (Ps. 51: 
1-19). 

As recorded in Psalm 51, David is the outstand- 
ing example of true repentance and confession on 
the part of an Old Testament saint. In the Scrip- 
tures his sin is laid bare and with it his broken 
and contrite heart. He was saved (howbeit under 
the Old Testament relationships) ; for he prayed, 
“Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation.” He did 
not pray, restore unto me my salvation. He knew 
that his salvation, which depended only on the faith- 
fulness of God, had not failed. He was pleading 
for a return of the joy which had been lost through 


72 He That is Spiritual 


sin. He had lost his testimony as well. Antici- 
pating his restoration he said, “Then will I teach 
transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be con- 
verted unto thee.” 

Being saved, even though of the Old Testament 
order, David’s way back to God was by the way of 
confession. There are portions of this major pas- 
sage which, although true of an Old Testament 
saint, could not rightly be applied to a Christian 
in this new dispensation of Grace. We need never 
pray, “And take not thy Holy Spirit from me”; for 
He has come to abide. So, also, we need not plead 
for forgiveness and restoration. Since the blood 
has been shed on the cross, the blessings of forgive- 
ness and cleansing are instantly bestowed through 
the faithfulness and justice of God upon the be- 
liever who makes a full confession. 


SEVENTH, THE THREE-FOLD ILLUSTRATIVE PAr- 
ABLE IN THE Gospets (Lk, 15: 1-32). 


The last of the seven major passages bearing on 


the cure of the effects of sin upon the spiritual life 
of a saint, whether of the Old Testament, or the 
New, is found in Lk. 15:1-32. This portion of the 
Scriptures contains one parable in three parts. It 
is of a lost sheep, a lost piece of silver, and a lost 
son. Though three incidents are told, there is 
but one underlying purpose. The particular value 
of this passage, in the present connection, is its 
revelation of the divine compassion as seen in the 
restoration of a sinning saint. It is the unveiling 
of the Father’s heart. The emphasis falls upon the 


——S we. 


ne ee 


“Grieve Not the Holy Spirit” 73 


shepherd, rather than upon the sheep; upon the 
woman, rather than upon the lost piece of silver; 
and upon the father, rather than upon either son. 

In considering this passage, it must be borne in 
mind that what is here recorded is under the con- 
ditions which obtained before the cross. It, there- 
fore, has to do primarily with Israel. They were 
the covenant people of the Old Testament, “the 
sheep of his pasture,” and their position as such 
was unchanged until the new covenant was made in 
His blood. Being covenant people, they could 
return to the blessings of their covenant, if those 
blessings had been lost through sin, on the grounds 
of repentance and confession, This, according to 
the Scriptures and as has been seen, is true of all 
covenant people. Israel’s covenants are not the 
same in character as “the new covenant made in his 
blood”; but the terms of restoration into the bless- 
ings of the covenant are the same in the one case 
as in the other. The fact of the covenant abides 
through the faithfulness of God; but the blessings 
of the covenant may be lost through the unfaith- 
fulness of the saint. The blessing is regained, too, 
not by forming another covenant, but by restoration 
into the unchanging privileges of the original coven- 
ant. 

The three-fold parable is about Israelites and was 
addressed to them. Whatever application there may 
be in the parable to Christians under the new coven- 
ant is possible only on the ground of the fact that 
the way of restoration by repentance and confession 
is common to both covenant people. In the parable, 
therefore, we have a picture of the heart of God 


74. He That is Spiritual 


toward any and all of His covenant people when 
they, sin. 

The parable opens thus: ‘Then drew near unto 
him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him. 
And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, 
This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them.” 
Here is the key to all that follows. “Publicans and 
sinners” were not Gentiles. Publicans were Israel- 
ites under the covenant “made unto the fathers” 
who had turned traitor to their nation to the ex- 
tent of becoming tax-gatherers for Rome. “Sinners” 
were Israelites under the same covenant who had 
failed to present the sacrifices for sin as prescribed 
by the law of Moses. An Israelite was counted 
“blameless” before the law when he had provided 
the required offerings. Thus Paul could say of him- 
self concerning his former position as a Jew under 
the law: “Touching the righteousness which is in 
the law, blameless.” The Apostle is not claiming 
sinless perfection: he is testifying to the fact that 
he had always been faithful in providing the sacri- 
fices prescribed in the law of Moses. The Pharisees 
and scribes were Israelites who gave their whole 
lives to the exact fulfillment of the law of Moses. 
Paul was a Pharisee, “an Hebrew of the Hebrews.” 
These men were not Christians and should not be 
judged as such. There is little in common here with 
Christians. These Israelites were blameless through 
the animal sacrifices, which anticipated the death of 
Christ. Christians are blameless through faith in 
the blood of Christ which has already been shed. 
One is a justification by works, on the human side; 


“Grieve Not the Holy Spirit” 75 


the other is a justification by faith concerning a 
finished work of God. 

The Pharisees and scribes murmured when they 
saw that Jesus received Publicans and sinners and 
ate with them. He, therefore, spoke this parable 
unto them. The parable is explicitly addressed to 
murmuring Pharisees and scribes rather than to 
everybody, anywhere. ‘And there can be little un- 
derstanding of the truth contained in it unless the 
plain purpose for which it is told is kept in mind. 

In turning to an interpretation of the parable, 
some consideration must be given to the well-nigh 
universal impression that this parable is a picture of 
salvation. While it is a blessed picture of the heart 
of God, it most evidently has to do with restoration 
rather than regeneration. 

The first division of the parable is of a man who 
had an hundred sheep. “What man of you, having 
an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth 
not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and 
go after that which is lost, until he find it?’ This 
is not a picture of ninety-nine sheep and one goat: 
it is of one hundred sheep, and “sheep,” according 
to the Scriptures, are always covenant people. 
Israelites were sheep, so, also, are the Christians 
of this dispensation. Jesus, when speaking of those 
to be saved through His death, said to the Jews: 
“Other sheep I have which are not of this fold” 
(John 10:16). 

Another important distinction should be noted in 
this parable: The sheep, the piece of silver and the 
son were “Jost”; but they were lost in such a way 


76 He That is Spiritual 


as that they needed to be “found.” This is hardly 
the same as being Jost in such a way as to need to 
be saved. The Biblical use of the word “lost” has, 
at least these two widely different meanings. “The 
Son of Man has come to seek and to save that 
which was lost’; but in all three parts of the par- 
able, it is seeking and finding, rather than seeking 
and saving. The word “saved,” it should be ob- 
served, does not once appear in this parable. Should 
this parable be accepted as a teaching in regard to 
salvation, there is no escaping the error of “uni- 
versalism”; for this Shepherd seeks until He finds 
that which is lost. The passage, on the other hand, 
presents a blessed unfolding of the heart of God 
toward His wandering child who needs to be found 
rather than to be saved. “Ninety and nine” who are 
safe in the fold to one that is lost is a poor picture 
of the proportions which have always existed be- 
tween the saved and unsaved. Were the parable to 
teach the salvation of a sinner, far better would it 
have been had it presented “ninety and nine” who 
were lost to one that was safe in the fold. The 
parable continues: 

“And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his 
shoulders, rejoicing. And when he cometh home, 
he calleth together his friends and neighbours, say- 
ing unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found 
my sheep which was lost. I say unto you, that 
likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that 
repenteth, more than over ‘ninety and nine just 
persons, which need no repentance.” | 

The sinner here referred to can be none other 


“Grieve Not the Holy Spirit’ 77 


than the covenant sinner of the first verse of the 
passage and concerning whom the parable was told. 
He, being a covenant person, is here pictured by 
the Spirit as returning on the grounds of repent- 
ance, rather than on the grounds of saving faith. 
So, again, we could hardly find any class of persons 
within the church corresponding to the “ninety 
and nine just persons who need no repentance.” 
Such a case was possible, nevertheless, under the 
law of Moses, the Apostle Paul being a good ex- 
ample. The very Pharisees and scribes to whom 
the parable was addressed were of that class. With- 
in the outward demands of the law of Moses, they 
needed no repentance. 

Repentance is a vital element in our present salva- 
tion; but it is now included in the one act of believ- 
ing; for fully one hundred and fifty passages in the 
New Testament condition our present salvation on 
believing, or its synonym, faith. The Gospel by 
John, written especially that we might believe that 
Jesus is the Christ and that believing we might have 
life through His name, does not once use the word 
“repentance.” The unsaved today are saved through 
believing, which evidently includes such repentance 
as can be produced by those who are “dead in 
trespasses and sins.” Repentance means a change of 
mind and no one can believe on Christ as his 
Saviour and not have changed his mind with respect 
to his sin, his lost condition and the placing of his 
saving trust in the One Who is “mighty to save.” 

The second division of the parable is of. the 


78 He That is Spiritual 


woman and the lost piece of silver. It is the same 
story of seeking and finding that which was lost. 
The special emphasis in this division of the parable 
falls on the joy of the one who finds. It is the joy 
of the One in Whose presence the angels are. The 
story, again, is of a repenting sinner, rather than a 
believing sinner. 

The third division of the parable is of “A certain 
man.’ This story is evidently told to reveal the 
heart of the father. Incidentally he had two sons, 
and one of them was a “Publican and sinner,” and 
the other a “Pharisee and scribe.” _ One left the 
blessings of his father’s house (but did not cease 
to be a son): the other murmured when the sinner 
was restored. | 

No greater depths of degredation could be pic- 
tured’ to a Jewish mind than to be found in a field 
feeding swine. Here we have the Lord declaring, 
in the terms of His own time and people, that a 
wandering son may return by confession, even from 
the lowest depths of sin. It was there, in that field 
with the swine, that the son “came to himself” and 
purposed to return to his father with a confession, 
and confession is only the normal expression of a 
true heart repentance. There is no mention of re- 
generation. Nothing is said of faith, apart from 
which no soul could hope to be saved into sonship. 
He was a son and returned to his father as a son. 
The sentiment, that an unsaved person, when turn- 
ing to Christ, is “returning home” as sometimes 
expressed in sermons and gospel songs, is foreign 
to the teachings of the Word of God. Sons, who 
have wandered away, may return home, and, being 


“Grieve Not the Holy Spirit” 79 


lost in the state of wandering, may be found. This 
could not apply to one who has never been a child 
of God. Such are certainly Jost but need rather 
to be saved. In this dispensation, unsaved people 
do not return to God. 

When the returning son was a great way off the 
father saw him and had compassion on him and 
ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. The 
father saw him because he was looking that way. 
He had not ceased to look since the hour the son 
departed. Such is the picture of the Father’s 
heart, expressed, as well, in the searching both by 
the shepherd and by the woman. 

All righteousness would require that this return- 
ing boy be punished most severely. Had he not 
dishonored the father’s name? Had he not squan- 
dered his father’s substance? Had he not brought 
himself to ruin? But he was not punished. The 
fact that he was not punished unfolds to us of this 
dispensation the blessed truth that, because of the 
work of Christ on the cross, the Father can and 
will receive His child without punishment. The 
terms of restoration are only a broken-hearted con- 
fession. The guilt of the sin has fallen on Another 
in our stead. 

The confession of this son was first toward heav- 
en and then to his father. This is the true order 
of all confession. It must be first to God and then 
to those, and only those, whom we have wronged. 

Great is the power of a broken-hearted confes- 
sion. No one would believe that the wandering son, 
after having been restored, and after resting again 
in the comforts of that fellowship and home, would 


80 He That is Spiritual 


immediately ask his father for more of his goods 
that he might return to the life of sin. Such action 
would be wholly inconsistent with the heart-broken 
confession he has made. True confession is real 
and transforming in its power (see 2 Cor. 7:11). 

He was a son during all the days of his absence 
from home. Had he died in the field with the 
swine, he would have died as a son. So far as this 
illustrates the estate of a sinning Christian, it may 
be concluded from this and all the Scriptures on 
this subject, that an imperfect Christian, such as we 
all are, would be received into the heavenly home 
at death, though he suffer loss of all rewards and 
much joy, and though, when he meets his Lord face 
to face he is called upon there to make his hitherto 
neglected confession. 

It may be concluded from these seven major 
passages, that the, cure of the effects of sin on the 
spiritual life of a child of God is promised to the 
one who, in repentance of heart, makes a genuine 
confession of his sin. 

The blessing does not depend upon sinless per- 
fection: it is a matter of not grieving the Spirit. It 
is not an issue concerning unknown sin: it is an 
attitude of heart that is willing always instantly to 
confess every known sin. “If we confess our sins, 
he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to 
cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” The Chris- 
tian who fully confesses all known sin will have 
removed one, if not all, of the hindrances to the 
fullest manifestation of the Spirit. 

“And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby 
ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.” 


CHAPTER V 


FOURNCH NOT TH SriInTT® 
THE SECOND CONDITION OF TRUE SPIRITUALITY 


“Quench not the Spirit” (1 Thes. 5:19) is an- 
other explicit command to the believer concerning 
his relation to the One Who indwells him. 


WHAT IS IT THAT QUENCHES THE SPIRIT? 


The Spirit is “quenched” by any unyieldness to 
the revealed will of God. It is simply saying “no” 
to God, and so is closely related to matters of the 
divine appointments for service; though the Spirit 
may be “quenched,” as well, by any resistance of 
the providence of God in the life. 

The word “quench,” when related to the Spirit, 
does not imply that He is extinguished, or that He 
withdraws: it is rather the act of resisting the 
Spirit. The Spirit does not remove His presence. 
He has come to abide. 

According to the Scriptures, the believer’s re- 
sponsibility in realizing true spirituality is again 
crystalized into one crucial word, “yield.” “But 
yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive 
from the dead, and your members as instruments of 
righteousness unto God” (Rom. 6:13). Such an 
attitude of heart toward the will of God becomes 
those who “are alive from the dead,” and any 
other attitude is no less than rebellion in the family 
and household of God. Our Father is never mis- 
taken. His will is always infinitely best. Therefore 


82 He That is Spiritual 


we must not “quench the Spirit.” We must not 
say “no” to God. 

When we have entered heaven by His grace, and 
have gained the larger vision and understanding of 
that sphere, we will look back over our pilgrim 
pathway on the earth and either have joy, or regret, 
as we contemplate the life we have lived. There is 
a life of no regrets. It consists in having done the 
will of God. That divine plan and purpose will be 
recognized through all eternity as that which was 
God’s very best for us. 


THE YIELDED LIFE 


‘To be yielded to Him is to allow Him to design 
‘and execute the position and effectiveness of our 
lives. He alone can do this. Of all the numberless 
paths in which we might walk, He alone knows 
which is best. He has power to place our feet in 
that path and to keep them there, and He alone has 
love for us that will never cease to prompt Him 
to do for us all that is in His wisdom, power and 
love to do. Truly the life is thrice blessed that 
learns to yield to the will of God. 

Nothing could be more misdirected than a self- 
directed life. In our creation God has purposely 
omitted any faculty, or power, of self-direction. 
“O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in 
himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct 
his steps” (Jer. 10:23). It is the divine plan that 
the element of guidance shall be supplied in us by 
God Himself. One of the results of the Adamic 
fall is the independence of the human will toward 
“God; yet man is most spiritual and most conformed 


“Quench Not the Spirit” 83 


to the design of his Maker when he is most yielded 
to the divine will. What greater evidence of the 
fall do we need than that we must struggle to be 
yielded to Him? How much we feel we have 
gained when we can say, “Thy will, not mine be 
done!’ It is because our daily life will be helpless 
and a failure apart from the leading of the Spirit, 
and because the Spirit has come to do this very 
work, that we cannot be rightly adjusted to Him, 
or be spiritual, until we are yielded to the mind 
and will of God. 

A full dedication of our bodies to be a “living 
sacrifice” is the “reasonable service” and is an issule 
of first importance for the child of God. Following 
the doctrinal statement of the two-fold work of 
God for us in our salvation, as recorded in Romans, 
chapters 1-8, and after the parenthetical portion of 
the Epistle concerning Israel, the message of the 
book turns at chapter 12 to an appeal for the man- 
ner of life that becomes one who has been thus 
saved from the guilt of sin and for whom salvation 
has been provided from the power of sin. It is at 
the very beginning of this great portion of the 
‘Scriptures that this practical appeal is made. The 
passage states: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, 
by the mercies of God, that ye present (the same 
word as ‘yield,’ in Rom. 6:13) your bodies a living 
sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your 
reasonable service. And be not conformed to this 
world: but be ye transformed (transfigured) by the 
renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is 
that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” 

The words “I beseech you” are far removed from 


84  -He That is Spiritual 


being a command. It is a pleading for that manner 
of life which becomes the children of God. It is 
not something that we must do to be saved: it is 
something we should do because we are saved. The 
first exhortation in this practical portion of this 
Epistle of salvation is for dedication of the whole 
body as a living sacrifice. This should not be called 
“consecration”; for consecration is an act of God. 
The believer may lay down, yield, or dedicate; but 
God must take up and apply what is presented. 
That is consecration. Again, there is little Scrip- 
ture to warrant a supposed “reconsecration.” We 
cannot partly choose the will of God as the rule of 
our lives. We have not chosen to do His will until 
we have really become willing to do His will. True 
dedication, therefore, does not call for a reconsecra- 
tion td God. There is no mention here of some par- 
ticular service that might be made an issue of 
willingness. It is only self-dedication to whatsoever 
God may choose for us, now, or ever. Such is our 
“reasonable service,” if it is “holy and acceptable 
unto God.” When we are not conformed to this 
world and when we are transfigured by the renewing 
of our minds, we will make full proof in our lives 
of “that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of 
God” for us. Thus yieldedness is presented as the 
first and all-important issue for the one that is 
saved. There is much teaching about service fol- 
lowing in this portion of the Scriptures; but even 
the appeal for service could be of no avail until 
there has been a presentation of the whole body as 
a living sacrifice. 


“Quench Not the Spirit’ 85 


CHRIST THE PATTERN 


One of the human perfections of the Lord Jesus 
was His complete yieldedness to the will of His 
Father. The Scriptures bear abundant testimony 
to this. In Heb. 10:5-7 we have the record: 
“Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he 
saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but 
a body hast thou prepared me: in burnt offerings 
and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. 
Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book 
it is written of me), to do thy will, O God.” He 
was yielded to His Father’s will. His yieldedness 
included even His human body (“but a body hast 
thou prepared me’’), the sacrifice of which was to 
give value to every acceptable animal sacrifice that 
had gone before, and to supersede any attempted 
sacrifice that might follow. When He was nearing 
His cross He said: “Nevertheless not my will, but 
thine, be done.” Again, it is recorded of Him in 
Psalm 22 that He said to His Father: “But thou 
att holy,” and this He said at the darkest hour 
of His crucifixion when He was crying, “My God, 
my God, why hast thou forsaken me ?” Yet again, 
in Phil. 2:8, we are told that He “became obedient 
unto death, even the death of the cross.” 

The absolute yieldedness of the Son to do the 
Father’s will is not only the supreme example of a 
normal attitude of a child of God toward his Father, 
but such an attitude is to be imparted and main- 
tained in the believer’s heart by the Spirit, after the 
first act of dedication has been accomplished. The 
following passage is an exhortation to this end: 
“Tet this mind be in you, which was also in Christ 


86 He That is Spiritual 


Jesus” (Phil. 2:5). The first word of this passage 
is most illuminating; for in this little word “let” 
is compressed the whole Bible teaching concerning 
the believer’s responsibility toward the possible 
manifestation of Christ in the daily life by the Spirit. 
We could not produce such a manifestation; but we 
can “let” it be done in us by Another. The issue, it 
is clear, is not that of resolving to do anything: it is 
rather that of an attitude of willingness that An- 
other may do according to the last degree of His 
blessed will. Then, lest we might not realize the ex- 
act character of the mind of Christ which we are to 
“let” be reproduced in us and might be unprepared 
for the out-working of those particular elements in 
our daily life, an explicit and detailed description of 
the elements of “the mind of Christ” is recorded: 
“Who, being in the form of God, thought it not 
robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of 
no reputation, and took upon him the form of a 
servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and 
being found in fashion as a man, he humbled him- 
self, and became obedient unto death, even the death 
of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly 
exalted him” (vs. 6-9). 

It should be noted that these particulars which 
taken together form the “mind of Christ” are not 
mentioned merely to relate facts about Jesus Christ: 
they are presented that we may be fully aware of 
just what is to be reproduced in us, and just what 
we are to “Jet”? Him do in us and through us. 
The divinely produced manifestation in the be- 
liever’s life will be “the mind of Christ”; but this, 
we are assured from all Scripture, is wrought by 


“Quench Not the Spirit” 87 


the power of the Spirit. ‘For me to live is Christ.” 
That is an effect. The cause is the power of the 
Spirit of God. Out of much that the passage re- 
veals, at least three things may be mentioned: 

First, Christ was willing to go where His Father 
chose. He was at home in the glory. It was His 
native environment; but He came into this world 
with a mission and message of grace. “God had 
an only Son and He was a foreign missionary.” 
Such was His Father’s will for Him and His at- 
titude may be expressed by the familiar words: 
“T’ll go where You want me to go, dear Lord.” 

Second, Christ was willing to be whatever His 
Father chose. “He made Himself of no reputa- 
tion.” He was not only willing to lay aside the 
garments of His glory, but He was willing, as 
well, to be set at naught, to be spit upon and to 
be crucified. That was the Father’s will for Him 
and His attitude may be expressed in the words: 
“Vll be what You want me to be.” 

Third, Christ was willing to do whatever His 
Father chose. He became obedient unto death, 
and in so doing, His attitude may again be ex- 
pressed in the words: “I’ll do what You want me 
to do.””* 

Many may sing the words of the hymn above 
quoted who may never have faced the question of 
a positive surrender to the will of God. There can 
be no true spirituality until this surrender is made. 
But when it is done, God imparts the sufficient 
power for the realization of all His will. This 
passage closes with these words: ‘For it is God 


*See also page 92. 


88 He That is Spiritual 


which worketh (energizes) in you both to will and 
to do of his good pleasure.” Thus He undertakes 
and continues the flow of every spiritual reality 
in the life that is normally adjusted to Him (Gal. 
5:3). 

Our Lord when dealing with this great theme 
of the Christian’s responsibility in being wholly 
yielded to God, spoke of it as abiding in Him (John 
15:1-17). The results of the abiding life are 
three-fold: (1) Prayer is effectual: “If ye abide 
in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask 
what ye will, and it shall be done unto you”; (2) 
Joy is celestial: “These things have I spoken unto 
you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your 
joy might be full”; (38) Fruit is perpetual: “Ye 
have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and 
ordained you, that you should go and bring forth 
fruit, and that your fruit should remain.” These 
results include all that is vital in a spiritual life 
and are conditioned by Christ upon obedience to 
all that He has said: “If ye keep my command- 
ments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have 
kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his 
love.” Abiding, then, is simply yielding to the 
known will of our Lord, just as He was yielded 
to His Father’s will. 

A yieldedness to the will of God is not demon- 
strated by some one particular issue: it is rather a 
matter of having taken the will of God as the rule 
of one’s life. To be in the will of God is simply 
to be willing to do His will without reference to 
any particular thing He may choose. It is elect- 
ing His will to be final, even before we know what 


“Quench Not the Spirit” 89 


He may wish us to do, It is, therefore, not a ques- 
tion of being willing to do some one thing: it is 
a question of being willing to do anything, when, 
where and how, it may seem best in His heart of 
love. It is taking the normal and natural position 
of childlike trust which has already consented to 
the wish of the Father even before anything of the 
outworking of His wish is revealed. This dis- 
tinction cannot be over-emphasized. It is quite 
natural to be saying: “If He wishes me to do 
something, let Him tell me and I will then deter- 
mine what I will do.” To a person in such an 
attitude He reveals nothing. There must be a 
covenant relationship of trust in which His will 
is assented to once for all and without reservation. 
Why should it not be so? Might not our reluctance 
sometimes be stated in the words, “I know thee, 
hard taskmaster!’ Is He a hard taskmaster? Is 
there any hope whatsoever that we of ourselves 
might be wise enough to choose what is best if | 
we keep the direction of our own lives in our own 
hands? Will the Father, Whose love is infinite, 
impose upon His child? Or will He ever be care- 
less? 

We may experience long waiting to ascertain 
what His will may be; but when it is clearly re- 
vealed, there can be no room for debate in the 
heart that would not quench the Spirit. 


KNOWING THE WILL OF GOD 


There is always a desire to understand more 
fully just how we may know the will of God. To 
this it may be answered: 


90 He That is Spiritual 


First, His leading is only for those who are 
already committed to do as He may choose. To 
such it may be said: “God is able to speak loud 
enough to make a willing soul hear.” 

Second, The divine leading will always be ac- 
cording to the Scriptures. To His word we may 
always go with prayerful expectation; yet it is most 
perilous to treat the Bible as a magic lottery. We 
do not know the meaning of a passage by “casting 
lots.” We do not find out the will of God from 
the Bible by opening the Book and abiding by the 
sentiment of the first verse we may chance to 
read. It is not a matter of chance, nor is our rela- 
tion to His Word so superficial that we may expect 
to find His blessed mind for us by blindly reading 
one chance verse. We are to study and know the 
Scriptures that every word of His testimony may 
instruct us. 

Third, He does not lead His children by any 
rules whatsoever. No two of His children will 
be led alike and it is most probable that He will 
never lead any one of His children twice in exactly 
the same way. Therefore rules are always excep- 
tions to what He really does, and so are apt to 
be misleading. 

Fourth, The divine leading is by the Spirit Who 
indwells the Christian. It follows, therefore, that 
true leading, in this dispensation, will be more an 
inner consciousness than by outward signs. We 
have “the mind of the Spirit.” He is both able 
to convince us of what is wrong and to impart a 
clear conviction as to what is right. Because of our 
present unique relation to the Spirit, it is hardly 


“Quench Not the Spirit” 91 


mecessary, or wise, to depend much on “fleeces” 
or a “pillar of cloud”; though He may sometimes 
lead through these external things. It is God which 
worketh in you both to will and to do of His good 
pleasure. We must learn the reality of the indwell- 
ang Spirit and what it means to “walk” in Him. 

On the divine side, the yielding of the human 
will is seen to be imperative. The Father cannot 
suffer rebellion in His household, nor can He real- 
ize His blessed designs for His child until His 
judgment is freely acknowledged to be best. There 
is a distinction to be noted between chastisement 
for correction, which may oft be repeated, and 
the once for all “scourging” which every son must 
receive (Heb. 12:6). One is unto correction as 
“oft as it is needed; but the other is the once for all 
conquering of the human will. When our human 
will is thus conquered, it does not follow that our 
-will is weakened in relationships with our fellow 
men. The will has been yielded to God. How simple 
call this might be; yet what years of scouring many 
have suffered only because they would not be nor- 
‘mal in relation to the mind of God for them! 
Not all affliction is to be counted as scourging. 
When it is scourging, we will be conscious of our 
“own stubbornness in not yielding. 

Yielding to the mind and will of God is a definite 
.act which opens the gate into the divinely appointed 
path, wherein we may walk in all fellowship and 
‘service with Christ. A child of God cannot con- 
-sider himself to be in the appointed path if, within 
“the range of his understanding of himself, he has 
yno consciousness that he is subject to the will of 


92 He That is Spiritual 


God. “I came not to do my own will, but the will 
of him that sent me” was the pattern of yieldedness 
as revealed in Christ. It is recorded of Christ in 
Ps. 40:6 that He said to His Father: “Mine 
ears hast thou opened” (lit. bored). This is doubt- 
less a reference to the law of the bond-servant who, 
having been set free, yielded himself to his master 
forever (Ex. 21:5, 6). “And that he died for all, 
that they which live should not henceforth live 
unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, 
and rose again” (2 Cor. 5:15). 


WHAT IS A SACRIFICAL LIFE? 


The motive for yielding to the will of God is 
not the mere desire for victory in life, or for power, 
or blessing. It is that we may live the sacrificial 
life which is the Christ life. Sacrificial does not 
mean painful; it is simply doing Another’s will. 
Some pain may be in the path; but the prevailing 
note is joy, and the blessing of the heart is peace. 

Every child of God, then, must definitely yield 
to the will of God. Not concerning some one 
issue of the daily life; but as an abiding attitude 
toward God. Apart from that there can be no true 
spirituality and no escape from the Father’s scourg- 
ing hand; for He cannot, and will not, suffer His 
child to live on without the priceless blessings that 
His love is longing to bestow. Satan’s sin against 
God in the primal glory was expressed in two de- 
fiant words: “J will” (Isa. 14:14), and every un- 
yielded life is perpetuating the crime of Satan. To 
be spiritual we must not say “no” to God. “Quench 
not the Spirit.” 


a ee 


CHAPTER VI 
“WALK IN THE SPIRIT” 
THE THIRD CONDITION OF TRUE SPIRITUALITY 


True spirituality also depends upon a positive 
attitude of reliance upon the presence and power 
of the indwelling Spirit. The two previously men- 
tioned conditions have been negative in character. 
They represent things the believer, to be spiritual, 
must not do. He must not grieve the Spirit by 
retaining unconfessed any known sin. He must 
not quench the Spirit by saying “no” to God. 
The third, and last, condition is positive in char- 
acter. It is something the believer, to be spiritual, 
must do. 


WHAT IS MEANT BY “WALK IN THE SPIRIT’? 


There are several passages of Scripture in which 
this vital issue appears; but it is, perhaps most 
directly stated in Gal. 5:16: “This I say then, 
Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fiulfil the lust 
of the flesh.” The passage is better rendered: 
“This I say then, By means of the Spirit be walking, 
and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.” The 
child of God has no power within himself whereby 
he can enter, promote and maintain a “walk in 
the Spirit.” This Scripture, when rightly rendered, 
does not make the impossible demand upon a Chris- 
tian that he, in his own strength, is to accomplish 
a “walk in the Spirit.” It is rather revealed that 
the Spirit will do the walking in the Christian. 
The human responsibility is that of a whole de- 


94 He That is Spiritual 


pendence upon the Spirit. Walking by means of 
the Spirit is simply walking by a conscious reliance 
upon the ability and power of the One Who in- 
dwells. The same truth, though differently pre- 
sented, is stated in verse 18: “But if ye be led 
of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.” In no 
sense does the believer lead, or direct, the Spirit. 
He can, however, be dependent on the Spirit, and 
this is his exact responsibility as revealed in this 
passage. 

The third condition of true spirituality is, then, 
an unbroken reliance upon the Spirit to do what 
He has come to do and what He alone can do. 
Such is the Father’s provision that sin may be 
prevented in the life of His child. The results 
of the outworking of this divine provision are 
beyond our powers of estimation: ‘‘Ye shall not 
fulfil the lust of the flesh.” 

It is often the “beginning of days” in a Chris- 
tian’s life when he really believes and heeds the 
Word of God enough to be made aware of his 
own limitations, and seriously considers the exact 
revelation as to what he, of himself can or cannot 
do, and what the Spirit Who indwells him has come 
to do. We seldom attempt to do the work we have 
engaged another to do. We naturally rely on the 
person we have engaged to do it. Have we ever 
learned to depend on the Spirit for anything? Are 
we intelligently counting on the Spirit to under- 
take those particular things which, according to 
the Scriptures, He is appointed to do? Do we really 
believe we are just as helpless as His Word declares 
us to be? Do we really believe He is able and 


a 
; 


“Walk in the Spirit” 95. 


waiting to do every thing we cannot do? Having 
begun in the Spirit, so far as the divine undertaking 
in salvation is concerned, are we now to be per- 
fected by the flesh? In meeting the impossible 
issues of a true Christian life, are we consciously 
living upon a works-principle, or upon a faith- 
principle? The Bible emphatically declares the 
believer to be upon a faith-principle when he is 
really within the plan of God for his daily life. 
These uncomplicated teachings are on the pages of 
God’s Book and an attentive Christian can hardly 
avoid them. 

The God-honoring quality of life is always the 
divine objective in the believer’s daily life. Its. 
realization is never by a human resolution or 
struggle or the resources of the flesh: it is by 
“fishting the good fight of faith.’ There is a wide 
difference between “fighting” to do what God alone 
can do, and “fighting” to maintain an attitude of 
dependence on Him to do what He alone can do. 
The child of God has an all-engaging responsibility 
in continuing in an attitude of reliance upon the 
Spirit. This is the point of his constant attention. 
This is his divinely appointed task and place of co- 
operation in the mighty undertakings of God. The 
locomotive engineer will accomplish little when 
pushing at his ponderous train. He is not appoint- 
ed to such a service. His real usefulness will begin 
when he takes his place at the throttle. The im- 
portant conflict in the believer’s life is to maintain 
the unbroken attitude of reliance upon the Spirit. 
Thus, and only thus, can the Spirit possess and 
vitalize every human faculty, emotion and choice. 


y 


96 He That is Spiritual 


It is in every sense the Christian’s own life 
which is lived and his only consciousness will be 
that of the use of his own faculties: but all these 
will be empowered by the Spirit as they otherwise 
could not be. The empowering work of the Spirit 
does not set aside the normal functions of the human 
soul and spirit. He works through unto fulness 
of power which realizes the blessed will of God. 
“Tf by means of the Spirit ye are walking, ye shall 
mot fulfil the lust of the flesh.” “Faith is the vic- 
tory that overcomes the world.” 

Rationalism is directly opposed to faith. There 
‘are those who rebel at the teaching that salvation 
is by faith alone. They rebel either because they 
do not know, or do not believe, the Word of God. 
There are those, likewise, who rebel at the teach- 
ing that an unbroken victory in the believer’s daily 
life is by faith alone, and this, too, is either because 
they do not know, or do not believe, the Scriptures. 
The doctrine concerning a divinely produced sanc- 
tity of life does not rest upon one or two proof texts. 
It is one of the great themes, if not the most ex- 
tensive, theme in the Epistles; for not only is the 
doctrine taught at length, but every injunction to 
the Christian is based upon the exact principles re- 
vealed in the doctrine. 


THREE REASONS FOR RELIANCE UPON THE SPIRIT 


The Bible assigns at least three outstanding 
causes which hinder spirituality in the child of God, 
making necessary implicit and constant reliance up- 

-on the indwelling Spirit: (1) “The world,” or the 
«opposite of the heavenly standards; (2) “The flesh,” 


wees. 


“Walk in the Spirit” He 


or that within the Christian which opposes the 
Spirit by “lusting” against the Spirit; and (3) 
“The devil,’ who opposes every plan and purpose 
of God. These are now to be taken up more at 
length, but in a different order: 


First, THe ImMpossIBLE HEAVENLY STANDARD OF 
LiFE IN CONTRAST TO THE WORLD. 


God has but one Book and that Book includes 
all people of every dispensation. In it we find His 
will and purpose for Israel in the age before the 
cross, and His will and purpose for Israel and all 
the Gentile nations in the age to come. So, also, we 
find His will and purpose for the heavenly people of 
the present dispensation. The children of Israel were 
redeemed and delivered out of Egypt and He gave 
to them their rule of life which should govern 
them in their land. These particular rules were 
never addressed to any other people than Israel, 
and these rules addressed to Israel made their ap- 
peal to the “natural man.” They ceased to be in 
effect, as the required rule of life, after the death 
of Christ (John 1:17; Rom. 6:14; 2 Cor. 3: 1-13; 
Gal. 5:18). There is also revealed a rule of life 
which is to govern Israel when she is regathered 
and reestablished in her own land under the earth- 
wide rule of her Messiah King. His reign will be 
legal in character, or of the character of the law. 
Its principles are stated and anticipated by the 
prophets of the Old Testament and are also fur- 
ther revealed by passages in the New Testament. 
The Bible also contains a rule of life which applies 
to the heavenly citizens of the present dispensa- 


98 He That is Spiritual 


tion, who, though heavenly in position and respon- 
sibility, are called upon to live as “pilgrims and 
strangers” in the earth, and as witnesses in the 
enemy’s land. Their governing principles will be 
found stated in The Acts and Epistles and portions 
of the Gospels. These heavenly standards are not 
imposed upon the unregenerate world. The heaven- 
ly standard of life is as much higher in character 
than Israel’s law, as heavenly citizenship is higher 
than a citizenship in the earth. Israel’s law in- 
corporated many of the eternal principles growing 
out of the very character of God. These principles, 
as such, do not pass away; but the exact manner 
of their statement is changed that they may be 
adapted to the new relationships which the heaven- 
ly people sustain to God. Thus the believer is 
“not under the law”; though nine commandments 
of Moses in the Decalogue are carried forward and 
reappear with a different character and emphasis 
within the injunctions under grace. There is price- 
less value in knowing all that God has spoken to 
any people at any time; but the Christian is pri- 
marily concerned with the exact purpose and’ plan 
of God for him. The heavenly citizen will not find 
the full revelation of the will of God for him in 
any portion of the Scriptures spoken to people of 
other ages; though he may find much that is in 
common. There can be no clear apprehension of 
God’s Book apart from this distinction. 

In the Scriptures the Christian is addressed as a 
supernatural man and a superhuman manner of life 
is placed before him. This is reasonable. Christians 
are citizens of heaven from the moment they are 


‘Walk in the Spirit” 99 


saved and it is naturally required of them that they 
“walk worthy of their heavenly calling.’ From 
such a consistent life they cannot be excused. They 
are not made citizens by any manner of life, but 
being made citizens by the power of God, it be- 
comes them to live according to the position that 
God has given them. 

The following passages will serve to illustrate 
the superhuman character of the present rule of 
life for the child of God under grace: 

“A new commandment I give unto you, That ye 
love one another; as I have loved you, that ye 
also love one another” (John 13:34); “This is 
my commandment, that ye love one another, as I 
have loved you” (John 15:12). The law required 
love to be to another “as thyself.” To love as 
Christ has loved us is infinitely higher, and human- 
ly impossible. 

“And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God” (Eph. 
4:30). 

“And bringing into captivity every thought to 
the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5). 

“Giving thanks always for all things unto God 
and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus 
Christ” (Eph. 5:20). 

“That ye should shew forth the praises (virtues) 
of him who hath called you out of darkness into his 
marvellous light” (1 Pet. 2:9). 

“Rejoice evermore, Pray without ceasing” (1 
Thes. 5:16, 17). 

“T therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech 
you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith 
ye are called. With all lowliness and meekness, 


100 He That is Spiritual 


with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; 
endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the 
bond of peace” (Eph. 4: 1-3), 

Though these passages present impossible de- 
mands upon the human resource, God most evi- 
dently expects them to be realized in every believer’s 
daily life. He knows better than we that we could 
never produce any such quality of life; yet He is 
not unreasonable in His expectation, since He stands 
ready to supply all He demands. The Spirit in- 
dwells the believer for this very purpose. Of our 
own selves, we are not asked even to attempt these 
standards. The Epistles are full of assurances that 
the imparted energy of God through the Spirit is 
sufficient for all that God has required. “It is God 
which worketh (energizes) in you both to will and 
to do of his good pleasure.” | 

The new rule of life which is placed before the 
child of God under grace is, then, impossible from 
the human standpoint, and its realization must de- 
pend on a conscious reliance upon the indwelling 
Spirit to do the whole will of God. A Christian, 
to be spiritual, must “walk by means of the Spirit.” 


SECOND, THE CHRISTIAN FACEs A WoORLD-RULING 
For. 


The Bible represents Satan as the enemy of the 
saints of God and especially is this true of the saints 
of this age. There is no controversy between Satan 
and unsaved people; for they are a part of his 
world-system. They have not been delivered from 
the powers of darkness and translated into the king- 
dom of the Son of God. Satan is the energizing 


“Walk in the Spirit” 101 


power in those who are unsaved (Eph. 2:2), as 
God is the energizing power in those who are saved 
(Phil. 2:13). Every human being is either under 
the power of Satan, or under the power of God. 
This is not to say that Christians may not be in- 
fluenced by Satan and the unsaved not influenced 
by the Spirit of God; but their position is in one 
domain or the other, and Satan’s domain is not 
in all matters characterized by things that are in- 
herently evil as they are estimated by the world. 
Satan’s life-purpose is to be “like the Most High” 
(Isa. 14:14), and he appears “as an angel of 
light,” and his ministers “as the ministers of righte- 
ousness” (2 Cor. 11:13-15). His ministers, being 
ministers of righteousness, preach a gospel of 
reformation and’ salvation by human character, 
rather than salvation by grace alone, unrelated to 
any human virtue. Therefore the world, with all 
its moral standards and culture, is not necessarily 
free from the power and energizing control of 
Satan. He would promote forms of religion and 
human excellence apart from the redemption that 
is in Christ and the world is evidently energized to 
undertake that very thing. He has blinded the un- 
saved; but concerning one thing only. They are 
blinded by Satan lest the light of the gospel should 
shine unto them (2 ‘Cor. 4:3, 4). 

The enmity of Satan has always been against 
the Person of God alone, and not against humanity. 
It is only when we have “partaken of the divine 
nature’ that we are possessed with a new and 
mighty foe. The thrusts of his “fiery darts” are 
aimed at God Who indwells us. However, the con- 


102 He That is Spiritual 


flict is real and the foe is superhuman. “Finally, 
my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the 
power of his might. Put on the whole armour of 
God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles 
(strategies) of the devil. For we wrestle not 
against flesh and blood, but against principalities, 
against powers, against the rulers of the darkness 
of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high 
places” (Eph. 6:10-12). These world-rulers of 
the darkness of this age, the spiritual powers of 
wickedness, who are here said to wage a ceaseless 
conflict with us, cannot be overcome by human 
strategy or strength. The Bible lends no sanction 
to foolish suppositions that the devil will flee at the 
mere resistance of a determined human will. We 
are to “resist the devil,” but it must be done “stead- 
fast in the faith,’ and while “submitting” our- 
selves unto God (Jas. 4:7%; 1 Pet. 5:9). Satan 
being by creation superior to all other creatures, 
cannot be conquered by one of them. Even Michael 
the archangel, we are told, “when contending with 
the devil * * * durst not bring against him a 
railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.” 
Michael the archangel does not contend with Satan. 
He must depend on the power of Another ; thus 
acting on a principle of faith, rather than on a prin- 
ciple of works. Certainly a Christian, with all his 
limitations, must appeal to the power of God in the 
conflict with this mighty foe, and he is directed to 
do this: “Above all, taking the shield of faith, 
wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery 
darts of the wicked” (one, Eph. 6:16). ' 

The believer’s conflict with Satan is as fierce and 


“Walk in the Spirit” 103 


unceasing as that mighty being can make it. Be- 
fore him we of ourselves are as nothing; but God 
has anticipated our helplessness and provided a per- 
fect victory through the indwelling Spirit: “Be- 
cause greater is he that is in you, than he that is 
in the world” (1 John 4:4). A Christian, because 
of the power of the new enemy, must “walk by 
means of the Spirit” if he would be spiritual. 


Tuirp, THE ADAMIC NATURE. 


Careless Christians are not concerned with the 
Person and work of the Holy Spirit, or with the 
exact distinctions which condition true spirituality ; 
but these distinctions and conditions do appeal to 
those who really desire a life that is well pleasing 
to God. We find that Satan has pitfalls and coun- 
terfeit doctrines in the realm of the deepest spiritual 
realities. The majority of these false teachings are 
based on a misapprehension of the Bible teaching 
about sin, especially the sin question as related to 
the believer. 

The Scripture is “profitable for doctrine, for re- 
proof, for correction, for instruction in righteous- 
ness: that the man of God may be perfect (full 
grown), throughly furnished unto all good works” 
(2 Tim. 3:16, 17) ; but in the same Epistle we are 
also urged to “study” and “rightly divide” the Word 
of Truth. It should be noted that two out of four 
of the values of the Scriptures in the life of the 
“man of God,” as recorded in the above passage 
are “reproof’ and “correction”; yet how few, 
especially of those who are holding an error, are 
of a teachable spirit. It seems to be one of the 


104 He That ig Spiritual 


characteristics of all satanic errors that those who 
have embraced them seem never inclined honestly 
to reconsider their ground. They read only their 
sectarian, or misleading literature and often care- 
fully avoid hearing any corrective teaching from 
the Word of God. This difficulty is greatly in- 
creased when their error has led them to assume 
some unwarranted position regarding a supposed 
deliverance from sin, or personal attainments in 
holiness. A “correction,” or “reproof,’ to such 
seems to be a suggestion toward “backsliding,” and 
no zealously minded person will easily choose such 
a course. Much error is thriving along these lines 
with no other dynamic than human zeal, and the 
Word of God is persistently distorted to maintain 
human theories. Many of these errors are reproved 
and corrected when the fundamental distinction is 
recognized between the Christian’s position in Christ 
and his experience in daily life. Whatever God has 
done for us in Christ is perfect and complete; but 
such perfection should not be confused with the 
imperfect daily life. 

There are five Biblical doctrines which are closely 
related to the question of sin in the believer which 
are most commonly misunderstood, and which, if 
perverted, may be used of the enemy to drive 
even serious minded believers into most misleading 
presumption and harmful error. These doctrines 
are: (1) The fact of the continued presence of the 
Adamic nature in the believer, which is the present 
theme; (2) The divine cure for the effects of sin 
in the spiritual life of a Christian, already con- 
sidered ; (3) The Bible teaching about perfection; 


“Walk in the Spirit” 105 


(4) The Bible teaching about sanctification: And, 
(5) the Bible teaching about the believer’s death 
in Christ. That there may be a clearer understand- 
ing of the present theme, the Bible teaching about 
perfection and sanctification are first to be con- 
sidered briefly. The Bible teaching about the be- 
liever’s death in Christ will be taken up at a later 
and more appropriate point in this discussion. 


THE DOCTRINE OF PERFECTION 


In the Word of God, perfection is presented in 
seven aspects: 


(1) The Old Testament use of the word as ap- 
plied to persons. 

The word in the Old Testament has the meaning 
of “sincere” and “upright.” Noah was “perfect” 
ioc Ord hen op wast periect) (Jobe ks1..3)s in 
avoiding the sins of the nations, Israel might be 
“perfect” (Deut. 18:13); The end of the “perfect” 
man was peace (Ps. 87:37); So, also, the saints 
of the Old Testament order will appear in heaven 
as “the spirits of just men made perfect” (Heb. 
12:23). The Bible does not teach that these people 
were sinless, 


(2) Positional perfection in Christ. 

“For by one offering he hath perfected for ever 
them that are sanctified” (Heb. 10:14). This is 
clearly the perfection of the work of Christ for us 
and must not be related to the Christian’s daily life. 

(3) Spiritual maturity and understanding. 


“Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are 


106 He That is Spiritual 


perfect” (full grown, 1 Cor. 2:6, cf 14:20. See, 
also, 2 Cor. 18:11; Phil. 3:15; 2 Tim. 3:17). 


(4) Perfection which is progressive. 

“Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, 
are ye now made (to be made) perfect by the flesh ?” 
(Gal. 3:3). 


(5) Perfection in some one particular. 

(a) In the will of God: “That ye stand perfect 
and complete in all the will of God” (Col. 4:12). 

(b) In imitating one aspect of the goodness of 
God: “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father 
which is in heaven is perfect” (Mt. 5:48). The 
context is of the Father’s love for His enemies and 
the injunction is that this aspect of the Father’s 
goodness should be reproduced. There is no appeal 
here for a sinlessly perfect life. 

(c) In service: “Make you perfect in every good 
work” (Heb. 13:21). 

(d) In patience: “But let patience have her per- 
fect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, want- 
ing nothing” (mature, Jas. 1:4). 

(6) The ultimate perfection of the individual in 
heaven. 

“Whom we preach, warning every man, and teach- 
ing every man in all wisdom; that we may present 
every man perfect in Christ” (Col. 1:28. See, also, 
Col. 1:22; Phil. 3:12; 1 Pet. 5:10; 1 Thes. 3:13). 


(7) The ultimate perfection of the corporate body 
of believers in heaven. 


“Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of 


“Walk in the Spirit’ 107 


the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect 
man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness 
of Chirst” (Eph. 4:18. See, also, 5:27; John 17: 
23; Jude 24; Rev. 14:5). 

Such is the Bible teaching concerning perfection 
and it will be seen that no Scripture warrants the 
assumption of “sinless perfection.” 


THE DOCTRINE OF SANCTIFICATION 


The child of God is the object of a three-fold 
sanctification. The meaning of the word being 
simply to “set apart for God.” 


(1) Positional sanctification. 

“But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is 
made unto us * * *_ sanctification” (1 Cor. 
1:30) ; “By the which will we are sanctified through 
the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” 
(Heb. 10:10). Thus, also, the Apostle addresses 
all believers as “saints,” which term is from the 
same root as “sanctify.” Such they are by their 
position in Christ; but this does not imply that any 
saint is sinless in daily life. -He even addressed the 
Corinthian believers as “saints” and as already 
“sanctified” (1 Cor. 1:2; 6:11) ; yet this very letter 
was written to correct those Christians because of 
terrible sin (1 Cor. 5:1, 2; 6:1, 7, 8). They were 
“saints? and “sanctified” in Christ, but far from 
such in daily life. 

The word “holy,” like the word “saint,” is from 
the same root as “sanctify” and no more implies 
sinlessness than do the words “perfection,” “saint,” 
or “sanctify.” In the Scriptures reference is made 
to “holy apostles,” “holy prophets,” “holy brethren,” 


108 He That is Spiritual 


“holy priests,” “holy women,” “holy nation,” “holy 
conversation.” Such expressions refer to the posi- 
tion of the persons, or things which are said to be 
holy as being set apart for God. A doctrine of 
sinlessness cannot be built on any use of the word 
“holy,” or “sanctify” as these words are used in the 
Bible. 


(2) Experimental sanctification. 


This aspect of the work of God for the believer is 
progressive and is quite in contrast to the positional 
sanctification which is ‘‘once for all.” It is accom- 
plished by the power of God through the Word: 
“Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is 
truth” (John 17:17. See, also, 2 Cor. 3:18; Eph. 
5:25, 26; 1 Thes. 5:23; 2 Pet. 3:18), 


(3) Ultimate sanctification. 


Even experimental sanctification will be perfected 
when the saints are gathered into His presence in 
glory. “When he shall appear, we shall be like him,” 
and “conformed to the image of his Son” (1 John 
3:2; Rom. 8:29). 

The Bible teaching in regard to sanctification, 
then, is (1) that all believers are positionally sancti- 
fied in Christ “once for all” at the moment they 
are saved. This sanctification is as perfect as He 
is perfect. (2) All believers are being sanctified by 
the power of God through the Word and this 
sanctification is as perfect as the believer is perfect. 
So, also, (3) all believers will be sanctified and per- 
fected in the glory into the very image of the Son of 
God. The Bible, therefore, does not teach that any 


“Walk in the Spirit’ 109 


child of God is wholly sanctified in daily life before 
that final consummation of all things. 


THE DOCTRINE OF THE ADAMIC NATURE 


The third and last reason to be mentioned as to 
why the believer must consciously rely on the Spirit, 
as has been stated, is that he still possesses the 
Adamic nature over which he, of himself, has no 
sufficient control. The Christian is saved and safe 
in the grace of God; but he cannot command him- 
self into a God-honoring manner of life. For this 
he must rely upon divine power in order that he 
may be saved from the power of sin, as he has 
already relied on the power of God to save him 
from the penalty of sin. Salvation into safety, or 
sanctity, is all a work of God im and for the one who 
trusts Him. 

The fact that the unregenerate possess a fallen 
nature is generally admitted. The misunderstand- 
ing is with regard to the Christian. The Bible 
teaching is clear, and yet some professing Christians 
are misled into assuming that they do not any 
longer possess the tendency to sin.* This question 
may be discussed both from the experimental and 
from the Biblical standpoint. 

Experimentally, the most saintly of God’s children 
have been conscious of the presence and power of 
a fallen nature. This may be called the normal 
consciousness of the devout believer. Such a con- 
sciousness is not an evidence of immaturity: it is 
rather the evidence of true humility and clear vision 
of one’s own heart. It does not imply a lack of 


*See also page 134. 


110 He That is Spiritual 


fellowship with God occasioned by a grieving of 
the Spirit through known sin. Who can hate sin 
more than the one who is aware of its presence 
and power? And who is in greater danger of its 
havoc in his spiritual life than the one who in un- 
warranted presumption has assumed that the dis- 
position to sin has been removed? The conten- 
tion that one has no disposition to sin must be based 
upon a shocking lack of self-knowledge as to the 
motives and impulses of the heart. Or such an 
assumption is made through failure to comprehend 
the true character of sin itself. If an individual 
can convince himself that sin is something different 
from anything he ever does, or is inclined to do; 
beyond anything he ever thinks, feels or under- 
takes, he can doubtless convince himself that he 
has not sinned. If, in his own mind, one can 
modify the character of sin, he can, by that process, 
relieve himself from the consciousness of sin. There 
are not a few such people in the world today. Na 
truth can stand when based upon a human ex- 
perience. It must be based upon revelation. 

Sin is not what some prejudiced, misguided per- 
son claims it to be: it is what God has revealed 
it to be. Sin has been well defined, from a study 
of the whole testimony of the Word of God, to 
be “any violation of, or want of conformity to, 
the revealed will of God.” It is “missing the mark.” 
But what mark? Surely the divine standard. Have 
we done all and only His will with motives as pure 
as heaven and in the unchanging faithfulness of 
the Infinite? If possessed with any degree of the 
knowledge of God and self-knowledge, we are 


————-_ ee 


3 
rf 


“Walk in the Spirit” 111 


aware that we are far from sinless in the eyes of 
God. The consciousness of sinfulness at times has 
been the testimony of the most spiritual believers 
of all generations as they have been enabled to 
see the Person of God. Job, the upright in heart, 
abhored himself before God. Daniel, against whom 
no sin is recorded, said, ‘““My comeliness was turned 
in me into corruption.” 

There is a divine prevention against sin in the 
believer’s life; yet the experience of saints and 
the testimony of God’s Word is to the effect that 
all Christians do sin. 

In considering the Biblical testimony concerning 
the sins of the Christian two questions may reason- 
ably be asked: (1) “From what source does sin 
proceed in the child of God?” and, (2) “What is 
the divine remedy?’ There is abundant answer 
to these questions in the Word of God. 


I. From what Source does Sin Proceed in a 
Christian? 


Sin is the fruit of a fallen nature. This has 
always been so, with the exception of the first sin 
which resulted in the fall. We sin because of a 
fallen nature received from Adam, and from count- 
iess generations of sinning parents. This is true 
of the unregenerate: it is equally true of the re- 
generate. Yet it is claimed by some that a Chris- 
tian who is supposed to have been delivered from 
the sin nature, can still continue sinning as Adam 
sinned from an unfallen nature. Adam sinned but 
once from an unfallen nature, and no one else has 
so sinned from that time until now. Could we 


112 He That is Spiritual 


now be placed in the same state as our first parents, 
we would not be able to sin and still maintain 
that position. The first sin we committed would 
result in our return to a fallen state. What ad- 
vantage is there in evading the fact of the fallen 
nature in the believer by claiming that the. truly 
sanctified Christian has been put back on Adam’s 
ground? Where spiritually would such a person 
be after he has sinned, if the experience of Adam 
is of any value as evidence in the case? The Bible 
teaching on the subject of the Christian’s sin may 
be better understood if three important words are 
defined : 


VPLESH?’ (Gr. sarz). 


The word, in its general use, refers to the physi- 
cal body. It however has a moral, or ethical, mean- 
ing as well and with this we are concerned. “Flesh,” 
when used with a moral meaning in the Bible, re- 
fers to more than the physical body; it includes 
in its meaning the whole of the unregenerate per- 
son,—spirit, soul and body. It includes the body, 
but it also includes the human spirit and soul 
as animating the body. A physical body is “flesh” 
whether dead or alive. But the moral use of the 
word implies that it is alive and includes that which 
makes it alive and that which expresses itself 
through the physical body. The life impulses’ and 
desires are called “lusts of the flesh.” “If by the 
Spirit ye are walking, ye shall not fulfil the lust 
of the flesh” (Gal. 5:16. See also, Eph. 2:3; 
& Pet. 2:18; 1 John 2:16; Rom. 13:14). That 
the Bible use of the word “lust” is not limited to 


“Walk in the Spirit” 113 


inordinate desires is evidenced by the fact that the 
Holy Spirit is said to “lust against the flesh” ac- 
cording to the next verse in this context. The 
Scriptures are still more explicit concerning the 
breadth of the meaning of this word. Reference 
is made to “fleshly wisdom” (2 Cor. 1: 12) ; “‘fleshly 
tables of the heart” (2 Cor. 3:3); “fleshly mind” 
(Col. 2:18, cf Rom. 8:6). The Apostle does not 
say that either his body or nature are “fleshly”; 
he says, “J am fleshly” (Rom. 7:14), and, “in me 
(that is, in my flesh), dwelleth no good thing” 
(Rom. 7:18). “Flesh” is self. 

Into this whole “natural man’ a new divine na- 
ture is imparted when we are saved. Salvation is 
not a so-called “change of heart.” It is not a 
transformation of the old: it is a regeneration, or 
creation, of something wholly new which is pos- 
sessed in conjunction with the old so long as we 
are in this body. The presence of two opposing 
natures in one person results in conflict. ‘The 
flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against 
the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the 
other” (Gal. 5:17). There is no hint that this 
divine restraint upon the flesh will ever be un- 
necessary so long as we are in this body; but there 
is clear Bible testimony that the believer may ex- 
perience an unbroken “walk in the Spirit,’ and 
“not fulfil the lust of the flesh.” To secure all 
of this, no removal of the “flesh” is promised. The 
human spirit, soul and body abide, and the victory 
is gained over the “flesh” by the power of the 
indwelling Spirit. 

“OLD MAN” (Gr. palaios anthropas). 


114 He That is Spiritual 


This term is used only three times in the New 
Testament. Once it has to do with the present 
position of the “old man” through the death of 
Christ (Rom. 6:6); once it has to do with the be- 
liever’s daily life (Eph. 4: 22-24); once it relates 
to the experience growing out of the position (Col. 
Bey)’ 

In Rom. 6:6 we read: “Knowing this, that our 
old man is (was) crucified with him.” There can 
be no reference here to the experience of the Chris- 
tian: it is rather a co-crucifixion “with him” and 
most evidently at the time and place where He was 
crucified.* In the context this passage follows im- 
mediately upon the statement concerning our trans- 
fer in federal headship from the first Adam to the 
Last Adam (Rom. 5:12-21). The first Adam, as 
perpetuated in us, was judged in the crucifixion 
of Christ. Our “old man,” the fallen nature re- 
ceived from Adam, was “‘crucified with him.” This 
co-crucifixion, it will be seen, is of the greatest 
importance, on the divine side, in making possible 
a true deliverance from the power of the “old man.” 
A righteous judgment must be gained before any 
divine work can be undertaken in our behalf. The 
judgment is now secured, and the way is open for 
blessed victory through the Spirit. 

In the second passage in which the term “old 
man” is used, we are taken away from the judicial 
aspect of truth in our co-crucifixion with Christ to 
that which is experimental: “That ye put off con- 
cerning the former conversation the old man, which 
is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be 


*See also pages 122-134. 


“Walk in the Spirit” 115 


renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put 
on the new man, which after God is created in 
righteousness and true holiness” (Eph. 4: 22-24). 

In the third passage the position suggests the cor- 
responding experience. “Lie not one to another, 
seeing that ye have put off the old man with his 
deeds; and have put on the new man, which is re- 
newed in knowledge after the image of him that 
created him” (Col. 3:9, 10). Positionally, the “old 
man” has been put off for ever. Experimentally, 
the “old man,” must be put off continually. We 
put off the “old man,” it is evident, when we re- 
nounce entirely the thought of compromise with, or 
toleration of, the fruit of the old nature and by 
faith apply the divinely provided counter-agency 
for victory through the Spirit. The result of so 
“reckoning” and “mortifying our members” will be 
to make way for the Spirit to work out in the life 
the manifestations of the “new man,” Christ Jesus.* 
We could not judge the “old man.’ That has been 
done for us by Christ. Nor can we control the 
“old man.” That is to be done for us by the Spirit. 
“Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not 
provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof” 
(Rom. 13:14). The fruit of the “old man” and 
the fruit of the “new man,” it will be remembered, 
are clearly contrasted in Gal. 5: 19-23: “Now the 
works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; 
Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 
idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, 
wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, mur- 
ders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like. * * * 
~ *See alse page 35. 


116 He That is Spiritual 


But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long- 
suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, 
temperance” (self-control). 

There is no Biblical ground for a distinction be- 
tween the Adamic nature and a “human nature.” 
The unregenerate have but one nature, while the 
regenerate have two. There is but one fallen nature, 
which is from Adam and one new nature, which 
is from God. 

The “old man,” then, is the Adamic nature which 
has been judged in the death of Christ. It still 
abides with us as an active principle in our lives, 
and our experimental victory over it awaits the 
human act of “putting off” the old and “putting on” 
the new. This can only be done by a definite re- 
liance upon the indwelling Spirit. The “old man” 
is a part, then, but not all, of the “flesh.” 


“SIN” (Gr. hamartia). 


The third Bible word related to the source of evil 
in the child of God is “sin.” In certain portions 
of the Scriptures, notably Rom. 6:1-8:13 and 
1 John 1:1-2:2, there is an important distinction 
between two uses of the word “sin.” The two 
meanings will be obvious if it is remembered that 
the word sometimes refers to the Adamic nature, 
and sometimes to evil resulting from that nature. 
Sin, as a nature, is the source of sin which is com- 
mitted. Sin is the root which bears its own fruit 
in sin which is evil conduct. Sin is the “old man,” 
while sins are the manifestations in the life. Sin 
is what we are by birth, while sins are the evil we 
do in life. 


“Walk in the Spirit” 117 


There is abundant Biblical testimony to the fact 
that the “flesh,” the ‘old man” and “sin” are the 
sources of evil and are the possession of the child 
of God so long as he remains in this earthly body. 
He has a blessed “treasure” in the possession of the 
“new man” indwelling him; but he has this treasure 
“in an earthen vessel.”” The earthen vessel is the 
“body of our humiliation” (2 Cor. 4:7; Phil. 3:21). 


In 1 John 1:8, 10 we have clear warning against 
any presumption concerning sin. First, Christians 
are warned against saying that they have no sin 
nature: “If we say that we have no sin, we de- 
ceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” This 
is distinctly concerning the sin nature of the Chris- 
tian and has no application whatever to the unsaved. 
It is addressed to believers, and to all believers. It 
will not do to suppose that reference is made in 
the passage to some unfortunate, unenlightened, 
or unsanctified class of Christians. There is no 
class distinction here. It is the testimony of the 
Spirit of God with reference to every born-again 
person. For any such to say that he has no sin 
nature means that the person is self-deceived and 
the truth is not in him. This passage is evidently 
intended for “correction” to those Christians who 
are claiming to be free from the sin nature and who 
may have made themselves believe that they are 
free. A self-satisfied mind is not necessarily the 
mind of God. 

In the same passage Christians are also warned 
against saying that they do not now sin asa fruit of 
the old nature: “If we say that we have not 
sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in 


118 ._ He That is Spiritual 


us” (1 John 1:10). Nothing could be more ex- 
plicit. It is possible that a Christian may have been 
instructed to say that he does not sin ; but here is a 
word of “reproof,” when he confronts the testimony 
of the Spirit of God. Again, this is not concerning 
some unsanctified class of Christians: it is concern- 
ing all Christians. It is not a question of sins com- 
mitted in the past: it is now. To depart from the 
clear teaching of this great corrective passage is to 
make Him a “liar” and to disclose the fact that “his 
word is not in us.” 

The source of sin is, then, the sin nature, rather 
than the new divine nature. This important truth 
is pointed out in this same Epistle in a passage 
which primarily teaches that the Christian does not 
now practice sin as he did before he received the 
new divine nature, but which also teaches that sin 
cannot be traced to the divine nature as its source. 
“Not anyone that has been begotten of God practices 
sin, because his seed (the divine nature) in him 
abides, and he (with particular reference to the 
“seed”) is not able to sin, because of God he (the 
seed) has been begotten” (3:9, literal). It is evi- 
dent that the new nature is that which has been 
begotten of God and because of the presence of this 
nature, the one in whom it dwells does not now 
practice sin as he did before he was saved, nor can 
sin ever be produced by the new nature which is 
from God. The passage does not teach that Chris- 
tians do not sin, or even that some Christians do not 
sin; for there is no class of Christians in view and 
what is here said is true of all who have been “be- 
gotten of God.” 


“Walk in the Spirit” 119 


It is further taught in the Scriptures that, since 
there are two natures in the believer, there is a 
conflict between the new nature, through the Spirit, 
and the old nature through the flesh. “This I say 
then, Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfil the 
lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the 
Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these 
are contrary the one to the other: so that (when 
walking by the Spirit) ye cannot do the things that 


ye (otherwise) would” (Gal. 5:16, 17). This same 
truth is taken up more at length in Rom. 7:15— 


8:4. In this passage the old “I” is seen to be in 
active opposition to the new “I.” 

It is sometimes claimed of this passage that it 
refers to an experience in the Apostle’s life before 
he was saved. This is impossible. No such conflict 
can Biblically be related to the life of Saul of 
Tarsus, nor to any other unregenerate man. Saul. 
of Tarsus was not a “wretched man”: he was a 
self-satisfied Pharisee, living “in all good con- 
science” and “before the law blameless.” It was 
only when he began to “delight in the law of God 
after the inward man” that this deeper conflict was 
experienced. So, also, the claim is sometimes made 
that this passage had to do only with Paul as a 
Jew under the law of Moses and so could not apply 
to any Gentile, since the law of Moses was not ad- 
dressed to Gentiles. It is quite true that the law 
was not given to Gentiles. The primary purpose 
of this passage is not to set forth some distinguish- 
ing characteristic of a Jew under the law: it plainly 
represents a saint confronted with the impossibility 
of living according to the revealed will of God, not 


120 He That is Spiritual 


only because of the human impotence, but because 
of an active opposing principle in the “flesh.’”’ The 
law of Moses, if there referred to exclusively, it 
would seem, is referred to as an illustration of a 
clear statement of the mind and will of God. The 
mind and will of God for the believer under grace 
as has been seen, is infinitely more impossible to 
human strength than the law of Moses. So much 
the more are we found to be “wretched” men when 
attempting our present conflict in the “arm of the 
flesh.” The “law” of God, as referred to in the New 
Testament, sometimes means His present will for 
His people rather than simply the “law of Moses.” 
The conflict in this passage, it is clearly revealed, is 
over “evil” and “good,” in general terms, rather than 
over the law of Moses. If believers under grace 
are not in view in Romans seven, neither are they 
in Romans eight; for in passing from one chapter 
to the other there is no break in the development of 
the doctrine or its application. Earlier in the con- 
text the law of Moses has been set aside (6:14; 
7:1-6), and the new law of Christ (1 Cor. 9:21; 
Gal. 5:2; John 15:10), the “life in Christ Jesus” 
(8:2), or that which is produced in the believer 
by the Spirit (8:4), has come into view. 

The passage, with some interpretations, is as fol- 
lows: “For that which I (the old) do I (the new) 
allow not: for what I (the new) would, that do I 
(the old) not; but what I (the new) hate, that do 
I (the old). If then I (the old) do that which I 
(the new) would not, I consent unto the law (or 
will of God for me) that it is good. Now then it is 
no more I (the new) that do it, but sin (the old) 


“Walk in the Spirit” 121 


that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me (the 
old) (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: 
for to will is present with me; but how to perform 
that which is good I find not. For the good that I 
(the new) would I (the old) do not: but the evil 
which I (the new) would not, that I (the old) 
do. Now if I (the old) do that I (the new) would 
not, it is no more I (the new) that do it, but sin 
(the old) that dwelleth in me. I find then a law 
(not a law of Moses), that, when I (the new) 
would do good, evil (the old) is present with me. 
For I delight in the law of God after the inward 
man: but I see another law in my members (the 
old), warring against the law of my mind (the 
new that delights in the law of God), and bringing 
me into captivity to the law of sin (the old) which 
is in my members. O wretched (Christian) man 
that I am! who shall deliver me from the body 
of this death?” 

The answer to this great question and cry of 
distress with which the above passage closes is given 
in a following verse (8:2): “For the law of the 
Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free 
from the law of sin and death.” This is more than 
a deliverance from the law of Moses: it is the im- 
mediate deliverance from sin (the old) and death 
(its results, see Rom. 6:23). The effect of this 
deliverance is indicated by the blessedness recorded 
in the eighth chapter as in contrast to the wretched- 
ness recorded in the seventh chapter. It is all of 
the helpless and defeated “I” in the one case, and 
of the sufficient and victorious “I,” by the Spirit, 
in the other. We are, then, to be delivered by the 


122 He That is Spiritual 


“law,” or power, of the Spirit. But attention must 
be called to the fact, stated in 7:25, that it is 
“through Jesus Christ our Lord.” We are delivered 
by the Spirit; but it is made righteously possible 
through Jesus Christ our Lord, because of our union 
with.Him in His crucifixion, death, and burial. 


THE BELIEVER’S DEATH WITH CHRIST 


Substitution is the only reason assigned in the 
Bible for the death of Christ. He was taking the 
place of others. It was an infinite undertaking which 
accomplished infinite results. There is nothing more 
fundamental in a believer’s understanding than that 
he apprehend to some degree just what the death 
of Christ wrought. There should be more teaching 
on this great theme. One result of the act of re- 
membering the Lord’s death in the breaking of 
bread is the deepening of the personal conscious- 
ness of the meaning and value of that death. It is 
noticeable that those Christians who are frequently 
exercised in spirit toward His death in the breaking 
of bread are most awake concerning the value of 
the sacrifice of Christ for them. The disciples met 
on the first day of the week to break bread (Acts 
20:7). They knew the real desire of the Lord for 
them in this important matter and they knew the 
value of this ordinance in their own lives. A child 
of God should always be increasing in heart appre- 
ciation of his Saviour’s finished work. Provision 
for this has been made in the faithful remembering 
ef His death at His table. 

Through His sufferings unto death the Son of 
God bore the penalty of our sins, making it right- 


“Walkin the Spirit’ 1238 


eously possible for a holy God to receive sinners into 
His saving grace without punishment for their sins. 
Sinners, because of His substitution for them, have 
only to believe and be saved. Men are now facing 
the one issue of personal trust in the Saviour, and 
are condemned only because of their failure to 
believe on the Son of God (John 3:18; 2 Cor, 
5:19). In like manner, a positive reality concern- 
ing the sin nature was accomplished for the believer 
in the death of Christ. By that death it has beem 
made righteously possible for a holy God to take 
control of the old nature without any present judg- 
ments of that nature, and for the believer to be de- 
livered from its power. By the death of Christ the 
penalty of sins committed was borne for all men, 
and the power of sin was judged and broken for 
the child of God. The accomplishment of all this 
was a problem of infinite dimensions; for sin is 
primarily against God and He alone can deal with 
it. The Bible pictures sin as seen from the divine 
standpoint. It also unfolds God’s problem which 
was created by sin and records His exact manner 
and method of its solution. 

The theme of this book is concerned with the 
death of Christ as that death is related to the divine 
judgments of the sin nature in the child of God. 
The necessity for such judgments and the sublime 
revelation that these judgments are now fully ac- 
complished for us is unfolded in Rom. 6:1-10. This 
passage is the foundation as well as the key to the 
possibility of a “walk in the Spirit.” Herein it is 
declared that Christians need not “continue in sin,” 
but may “walk in newness of life.” “Sin shall not 


124 He That is Spiritual 


have dominion over you,” and we need no longer 
be the “bond-slaves to sin.” To this end He hath 
wrought in the cross. How important in His eyes, 
then, is the quality of our daily life; for His death 
not only contemplated our eternal blessedness in 
the glory, but our present “walk” as well! 

The old nature must be judged in order that God 
may be free to deal with it in the believer’s daily 
life and apart from all judgments. What destruc- 
tion would fall on the unsaved if God had to judge 
them for their sins before they could be saved! “O 
LORD, correct me, but with judgment; not in thine 
anger, lest thou bring me to nothing” (Jer. 10: 24). 
How great is His mercy! He has already taken 
up the sin question and solved it for all men in 
the death of the Substitute. Because of this He can 
now save from the penalty of sin. Even so, to what 
lengths His mercy has gone since He has also en- 
tered into righteous judgments of our “old man”! 
And because of ‘this He is now able to deliver His 
child from the power of sin. The “old man” is said 
to have been “crucified with him,” and we are “dead 
with him,” “buried with him” and are partaking in 
His resurrection. All this, it is revealed, was to one 
great purpose, that “we also should walk in newness 
of life,” even as Christ ‘“‘was raised from the dead 
by the glory of the Father.” What a deliverance 
and walk may be experienced since it is according 
to the power and glory of the resurrection! Res- 
urrection, it may be added, is not the mere reversal 
of death; it is the introduction into the power and 
limitless boundaries of eternal life. In that new 


eit in the Spirit” 125 


sphere and by that new power the Christian may 
now “walk.” 

The passage opens thus: “What shall we say 
then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may 
abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead 
to sin (We who have died to sin. So, also, vs 7, 
8, 11; Col. 2:20; 3:3), live any longer therein?” 

In the preceding chapters of this Epistle salvation 
into safety has been presented. At the beginning of 
this passage the question of salvation into sanctity of 
daily life is taken up. This second aspect of salva- 
tion is provided only for the one who is already 
saved into safety. “Shall we (who are now saved 
and safe in grace) continue in sin?” It would not 
become us to do so, as the children of God, and it is 
not mecessary for us to do so since we are now 
“dead to sin.” But who is “dead to sin”? Is it true 
that any Christian ever experienced a death to sin? 
Never was there one. But the death which is men- 
tioned in this passage is said to be accomplished for 
every believer. All Christians are here said to have 
died unto sin. A death which is all-inclusive could 
not be experimental. It is positional. God reckons 
all believers, as to their sin nature, to have died in 
Christ and with Christ, for only thus can they 
“walk in newness of life” as those who are “alive 
unto God.” It is no longer necessary to sin. We 
cannot plead the power of a tendency over which 
we have no control. We still have the tendency, 
and it is more than we can control; but God has 
provided the possibility of a complete victory and 
freedom both by judging the old nature and by 


126 He That is Spiritual 


giving usithe presence and power of the Spirit. We 
are dependent upon God alone for any deliverance; 
but He could not deliver until He had first right- 
eously judged our sin nature. This He has done and 
He has also given us the Spirit Who is ever present 
and wholly able. Thus the necessity to sin is broken 
and we are free to move on another plane and in 
the power of His resurrection life. 

Then follows the important explanation of the be- 
liever’s present relation to the death of Christ as 
forming the grounds of his deliverance from the 
power of sin. First an outline is given (vs 3, 4), 
and then the same truth is repeated, but more in 
detail (vs 5-10). It is not within the scope of this 
discussion to consider the importance of a sacrament 
that purports to represent the truth of our death 
with Christ. Such, at best, is but the shadow of the 
substance. No ordinance performed by man can 
accomplish what is here described. Our baptism into 
Jesus Christ can be none other than the act of.God | 
in placing us in Chirst (cf Gal. 3:27). This evi- 
dently is our baptism into His body by the Spirit (1 
Cor. 12:18); for in no other sense are we all “bap- 
tized into Jesus Christ.” Being by the baptism of the 
Spirit vitally united and placed in Him we partake 
of what He is and what He has done. He is the 
righteousness of God and the Scriptures teach that 
we are made the righteousness of God in Him (2 
Cor. 5:21), and are made accepted in the Beloved 
(Eph. 1:6). All this is true because we are in Him, 
So, also, He has substituted for us and what He has 
done is reckoned unto us because we are in Him,— 
or because we are baptized into Jesus Christ. 


“Walk in the Spirit’? 127 


The argument in this Passage is based on 
this vital union by which we are organically united 
to Christ through our baptism into His body: 
“Know ye not (Or are ye ignorant) that so many 
of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were 
baptized into his death ?” As certainly as we are in 
flim we partake of the value of His death. So, also 
the passage states: “Therefore we are buried with 
him by baptism into death” (cf. Col. 2:12). Thus 
we are actually partakers of His crucifixion (v 6), 
death (v 8), burial] (v 4), and resurrection (vs 4, 
5, 8) and as essentially as we would partake had 
we been crucified, dead, buried and raised. Being 
baptized into Jesus Christ is the substance of which 
co-crucifixion, co-death, co-burial and co-resurrec- 
tion are attributes. One is the cause: while the others 
are the effects. All this is unto the realization of 
one great divine purpose. “That like as Christ was 
raised up from the dead by the glory of the F ather, 
even so we also should walk in newness of life,’ or 
by a new life principle. Our “walk,” then, is the 
divine objective. Christ died in our stead. The judg- 
ment belonged to us; but He became our Substitute. 
We are thus counted as co-partners in all that our 
Substitute did. What He did, forever satisfied’ the 
righteous demands of God against our “old man” 
and opened the way for a “walk” well pleasing to 
God (see 2 Cor, 5:15). 

As the passage proceeds, this truth of our co- 
Partnership in Christ is presented again and with 
greater detail: “For if (as) we have been planted 
(conjoined, united, grown together, the word is 
used but once in the New Testament) together 


128 He That is Spiritual 


in the likeness (oneness, see Rom. 8:3; Phil. 
2:%) of his death, we shall be (now, and for- 
ever) also in the likeness of his resurrection.” 
We are already conjoined to Christ by the 
baptism of the Spirit (1 Cor. 12:12, 13) which 
places us positionally beyond the judgments of 
sin and are therefore free to enter the experience 
of the eternal power and victory of His resurrec- 
tion. “Knowing this (because we know this) that 
our old man is (was) crucified with him (for the 
same divine purpose as stated before), that the 
body of sin might be destroyed (Our power of ex- 
pression is through the body. This fact is used 
as a figure concerning the manifestation of sin. 
The body is not destroyed; but sin’s power and 
means of expression may be disannulled. See v 12), 
that henceforth we should not serve (be bond-slaves 
to) sin (the “old man”). For he that is dead is 
freed (justified) from sin (They who have once 
died to sin, as we have in our Substitute, now 
stand free from its legal claims). Now if we be 
dead with Christ (or, as we died with Christ), 
we believe we shall also live with him (not only 
in heaven, but now. There is as much certainty 
for the life in Him as there is certainty in the 
death in Him): Knowing (or, because we know) 
that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no 
more; death hath no more dominion over him 
(We are thereby encouraged to believe as much 
concerning ourselves). For in that he died, he 
died unto sin (the nature) once: but in that he 
liveth, he liveth unto God” (and so we may live 
unto God). 


“Walk in the Spirit” 129 


Such facts are recorded in the Scriptures con- 
cerning the meaning and value of the death of 
Christ and our present position in Him that we may 
be led to believe that it is all for us and is actually 
true of us now. Believing this, we will fearlessly 
claim our position in His boundless grace and dare 
to enter the life of victory. 

Thus far in this passage nothing has been said 
touching any human obligation, nor has reference 
been made to any work of man. It is all the work 
of God for us, and the conclusion of this great 
passage is to the effect that it is His plan and pro- 
vision that we should know that we have already 
provided for us a deliverance from the bond- 
servitude to sin. Based on this knowledge gained 
from His Word concerning all that God has done 
in Christ, an injunction immediately follows which 
presents our responsibility: ‘Likewise reckon ye 
also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive 
unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” We are 
not exhorted to reckon the sin nature to be dead; 
but we are exhorted to reckon ourselves to be dead 
unto it. Did the death of Christ literally destroy 
the power of the “old man” so that we can have 
no disposition to sin? No, for the passage goes 
on to state: “Let not sin therefore reign in your 
mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts 
thereof.” Evidently, then, the “old man” will re- 
main active, apart from sufficient control. The union 
with Christ has provided a possible deliverance; 
but it must be entered into and claimed by such 
human acts of faith as are expressed in the word 
“reckon,” and the additional words which follow 


130 He That is Spiritual 


in the passage: “But yield yourselves unto God, 
as those that are alive from the dead, and your 
members as instruments of righteousness unto God. 
For sin (the nature) shall not have dominion over 
you: for ye are not under the law (which pro- 
vides no power for its fulfilment), but under grace”. 
(which provides the sufficient Substitute and the 
limitless enablement of the Spirit of God). 

Every provision has been made. “Let not sin 
therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should 
obey it in the lusts thereof.’ Who can measure 
the truth that is compressed in the one word “there- 
fore”? It refers to all of the divine undertaking in 
the death of Christ by which we have been con- 
joined to Christ in order that we may receive the 
eternal values of His crucifixion, death, burial and 
resurrection. All this was accomplished for us 
before we were born. ‘Therefore,’ because of 
all this that is now accomplished and provided, we 
have limitless encouragement to enter into His 
plan and purpose for our deliverance. Faith, which 
believes the victory to be possible because it reckons 
the ‘old man” to have been judged, is the normal 
result of such a revelation. We are nowhere en- 
joined to enact His crucifixion, death, burial and 
resurrection; but we are encouraged by the revela- 
tion of what has been done to reckon the divine 
requirements for our deliverance from the “old 
man’’ to have been perfectly met and to believe that, 
because of this, we can now “walk in newness of 
life.” 

Several New Testament passages refer te the be- 
liever as being already dead. None of these, how- 


‘Walk in the Spirit” 131 


ever, refer to an experience: they refer rather to a 
position into which the believer has been brought 
through his union with Jesus Christ in His death. 
“Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ” (Col. 2: 20) ; 
“For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ 
in God” (Col. 3:3); “I am crucified with Christ” 
(Gal. 2:20); “But God forbid that I should glory, 
save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom 
the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the 
world” (Gal. 6:14); “And they that are Christ’s 
have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts” 
(Gal. 5:24). In the last passage, as in the others, 
reference is made to something that is accom- 
plished in all those who are Christ’s. It could not, 
therefore, refer to some experience, the result of 
a special or particular sanctity on the part of a 
few. These passages, since they refer to all be- 
lievers, can have but one meaning: in their union 
with Christ the “flesh with the affections and lusts” 
has positionally been crucified. In view of this 
divine accomplishment, the child of God is to 
“reckon,” “yield” “mortify” (count to be dead), 
“out off,” “let,” “put away,” “take unto you the 
whole armour of God,” “set your affection on things 
above,” “put on the new man which is renewed in 
knowledge after the image of him that created 
him,” “deny himself,’ “abide” in Christ, “fight,” 
“run the race,” “walk in love,” “walk in the Spirit,” 
“walk in the light,’ “walk in newness of life.” 
Such is the human responsibility toward that de- 
liverance which God has provided through the death 
of His Son and proposes now to accomplish by the 
Spirit. 


132 He That is Spiritual 


The divine objective, then, in all that is reeorded 
in Rom. 6: 1-10 is that we may “walk in newness of 
life.” God has met every demand of His holiness 
in accomplishing for us, in Christ, all the judgments 
against the sin nature that He could ever demand. 
It is recorded for us to understand and believe. 
“Knowing this,’ or, because we know this, we are 
justified in our confidence that we may “walk in 
newness of life,’ through the enabling power of 
the Spirit. What rest, peace and victory would 
be the portion of the children of God if they really 
did know that the ‘old man” was crucified with 
Christ and so it is made possible for them to live 
where sin’s power and manifestation might be con- 
stantly disannulled! 


THE SUMMARIZING SCRIPTURE 


The whole doctrinal statement concerning a pos- 
sible deliverance from the bond-servitude to sin, 
contained in Rom. 6:1-8:4, is summarized and con- 
cluded in the last two verses of the context (8: 
3, 4). In these two verses seven factors which en- 
ter into the revelation concerning a possible victory 
over sin, and which have been the subjects of dis- 
cussion in the whole context are mentioned again 
as a consummation of all that has gone before. The 
seven factors are: 

1. “The law” (8:3) which represents the right- 
eous will of God. Not limited to the law of Moses 
(see 6:14; 7:4, 25) which passed away (7:1-4; 2 
Cor. 3:1-18; Gal. 3:24, 25). It includes that which 
the Spirit produces in the one who is spiritual 
(8:4; Gal. 5:22, 23). The attempt to secure per- 


“Walk in the Spirit” 133 


fect righteousness through obedience to emy pre- 
cepts will always fail. 

2. “The weakness of the flesh” (8:3), or the 
utter inability of human resources in the presence 
of the heavenly requirements (7:14-21; John 15: 
5). 

3. “Sin in the flesh” (8:3). That in the flesh 
which is different from “weakness”: it is opposed 
to the Spirit (7 :14-23; Gal. 5:17). 

4. Christ came “in the likeness of sinful flesh” 
(8:3). He took the place of vital union with the 
sinner (6:5, 10, 11); but did not become a sinner, 
or partake of the sin nature (Heb. 4:15; 7:26). 

5. “And for sin, condemned (judged) sin in 
the flesh” (8:3). Thus He met every claim of the 
righteousness of God against the “old man” (6: 
TOT oo) 

6. “That the righteousness of the law (see 7:4, 
22, 25) might be fulfilled in us” (8:4) : never to be 
fulfilled by us (6:4, 14; 7:4, 6). It is the “fruit 
of the Spirit.” 

” Who walk not after the flesh, but after the 
Spirit” (8:4). Such is the human condition for a 
victorious “walk.” It must be by the Spirit (6. 11- 
22). 

Full provisions are made through the divine judg- 
ment of the “flesh? and the “old man” for the 
spiritual life of every Christian, even the fulfilling 
of the whole will of God in us by the Spirit. But 
these provisions become effective only to those who 
“walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” 
We have clear revelations and instructions from 
God and it is perilous to neglect or confuse these, 


134 He That is Spiritual 


or to fai in the exact responsibilities committed 
to us. 


IT. The Divine Remedy. 


The divine method of dealing with the sin nature 
in the believer is by direct and unceasing control 
over that nature by the indwelling Spirit. This it 
may be stated, is one of the most important under- 
takings of the Spirit in and for the believer. He 
proposes both to control the old nature and to mani- 
fest the new. 


TWO THEORIES 


Two general theories are held as to the divine 
method of dealing with the sin nature in believers. 
One suggests that the old nature is eradicated, 
either when one is saved, or at some subsequent 
ctisis of experience and spiritual blessing, and the 
quality of the believer’s life depends, therefore, on 
the absence of the disposition to sin. The other 
theory contends that the old nature abides so long 
as the Christian is in this body and that the quality 
of life depends on the immediate and constant con- 
trol over the “flesh” by the indwelling Spirit of 
God, and this is made possible through the death 
of Christ. In both of these propositions there is 
a sincere attempt to realize the full victory in daily 
life which is promised to the child of God. One 
theory begins with a very high assumption and 
then immediately modifies and qualifies its claims 
until it approaches the level of actual experience, 
The other begins with a full recognition of the 
human limitation and then discovers so much in 


“Walk in the Spirit” 185) 


the death of Christ and in the presence, purpose 
and power of the Spirit that the possible results 
are boundless. The life that is delivered from the 
bond-servitude to sin is the objective in each theory. 
It is therefore only a question as to which is the 
plan and method of God in the realization. Both 
theories cannot be true, for they are contradictory. 
In seeking to determine which of the two is ac- 
cording to the Word of God, it may be stated: 


First, Eradication is not the divine method of 
dealing with the believer's difficulties. 


There are three outstanding reasons why the 
Christian must depend wholly on the Spirit of God. 
He faces the “world, the flesh and the devil.’ He 
is not delivered from the low standards of the 
world into the high standards of the heavenly 
citizen by the eradication of the world. He is not 
delivered from his conflict with the enemy by the 
eradication of Satan. These victories are said to 
be gained by the direct and constant power of God. 
It is reasonable in the light of these facts to con- 
clude that it is not the divine method to deal with 
the “flesh,” or “sin” by eradication. Of what real 
value is eradication in the conflict with the sin 
nature if it cannot be claimed in the conflict with 
the world and with the devil? 


Second, Eradication is not according to human 
experience, 


It may be according to the immodest human as- 
sumption of a few; but most of its defenders dare 
not claim complete freedom from sin, but they 
have invented various theories by which they seek 


136 He That is Spiritual 


to account for their sin. One theory is to the ef> 
fect that their sin is the sin of an unfallen being, 
such as Adam was before he sinned. Concerning 
this claim it may be said that we are not saved 
into conformity to the first Adam: we are now im 
Christ and saved into conformity to the Last Adam. 
If this theory were true, the first sin committed by 
any person in that innocent state would result in 
a fall as far reaching and serious as was the ef- 
fect of Adam’s sin on his own nature and on his 
relation to God. 

Again, some fancy a distinction between their 
fallen nature and the human nature, and they 
claim that they sin from the human nature even 
though the fallen nature is eradicated. Such a 
theory finds no basis in the Scriptures. 

God has a better way of preventing sin, which is 
clearly revealed. It is free from bold assumption 
because it makes “‘no provision for the flesh” and 
depends only upon the power of the Spirit. The 
claim of eradication is foreign to the experience of 
the most spiritual saints in this and past genera- 
tions. There is no example of eradication in the 
Word of God. | . 


Third, Eradication is not according to Revela- 
tion. 


o> 66 


‘In the Word of God we have “instruction,” “cor- 
rection,” and “reproof.” By these we must deter- 
mine our conclusions rather than by any impression 
of the mind, or by analyzing any person’s experience 
whatsoever. The Bible teaches: 


(1), All believers are warned against tle as- 


‘Walk in the Spirit” 137 


sumptions of the eradication theory: “If we say 
that we have no sin (nature), we deceive ourselves, 
and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). 

(2), The Spirit has come to be our Deliverer 
and the whole Bible teaching concerning His 
presence, purpose and power is manifestly meaning- 
less if our victory is to be by another means alto- 
gether. For this reason the eradication theory 
makes little place for the Person and work of the 
Spirit. | 

(3), The Spirit delivers by an unceasing con- 
flict. “The flesh (which includes the old nature) 
lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against 
the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the 
other: so that (when walking by the Spirit) ye 
cannot do the things that ye (otherwise) would” 
(Gal. 5:17, cf Jas. 4:5). So, also, in Rom. 7: 
15-24, and 8:2, the source of sin in the believer is 
said to be the sin nature working through the 
flesh, and the victory is by the superior power of 
the Spirit. The teachings of the eradication 
theory are to the effect that a Christian will have 
no disposition to sin tomorrow and thus the theory 
prompts one to an alarming disregard for true 
watchfulness and reliance upon the power of God. 
The Bible teaches that, while the divine provision 
is unto perfection of life, the human appropriation 
is always faulty and therefore the results are +m- 
perfect at best. It also teaches that the latent 
source of sin remains and, should the “walk in the 
Spirit” cease, there will be an immediate return to 
the “desires” and “lusts” of the flesh. So long as 
“by the Spirit ye are walking, ye shall not fulfil the 


138 He That is Spiritual 


lust of the flesh.” We are all creatures of habit 
and may become increasingly adapted to the walk 
in the Spirit. We store knowledge through ex- 
perience as well. Thus the practice of the walk 
in the “flesh” may constantly decrease; but the 
ability to walk after the “flesh” abides. 

(4), The divine provisional dealings with the 
“flesh” and the “old man” have not been unto 
eradication. God has wrought on an infinite scale 
in the death of His Son that the way might be 
made whereby we may “walk in newness of life.” 
The manner of this walk is stated in such injunc- 
tions as “reckon,” “yield,” “let not,” “put. off,” 
“mortify,” “abide”: yet not one of these injunc- 
tions would have the semblance of meaning under 
the eradication theory. The Scriptures do not 
counsel us to “reckon” the nature to be dead: it 
urges us to “reckon” ourselves to be dead unto 
tt. 

(5), The teachings of the eradicationists are 
based on a false interpretation of Scripture con- 
cerning the present union of the believer with 
Christ in His death. That in the Bible which is 
held to be positional and existing only in the mind 
and reckoning of God, and which is accomplished 
once for all for every child of God, is misunder- 
stood to mean an experience in the daily life of a 
few who dare to class themselves as those who are 
free from the disposition to sin. 

(6), The conclusions of the doctrine of eradica- 
tion are based on false teachings concerning the 
Bible use of the word “flesh.” The advocates of 
this teaching do not understand that the word 


“Walk in the Spirit” 139 


“flesh” refers to all,—spirit, soul and body,—of the 
natural man, and, were it possible, the removal of 
the sin nature would not dispose of all the problems 
created by the limitations of the “flesh.” “In me, 
that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing.” The 
“flesh” must, therefore remain as long as the 
“earthen vessel,” the “body of our humiliation” re- 
mains. Certainly the body is not eradicated. 

(%), Eradication teaching is more concerned 
with human experience than with the revelation of 
God. It has always been content to analyze ex- 
perience and attempt to prove its conclusions by 
such analysis. That which is a normal experience 
of deliverance by the power of the Spirit can easily 
be supposed to be an evidence of “sinless perfec- 
tion,” “entire sanctification” and “eradication.” A 
human supposition can never take the place of the 
divine revelation. 

The two theories are irreconcilable. We are 
either to be delivered by the abrupt removal of all 
tendency to sin and so no longer need the enabling 
power of God to combat the power of sin, or we 
are to be delivered by the immediate and constant 
power of the indwelling Spirit. The Bible teaches 
the latter. 


WHAT IS SPIRITUALITY ? 


The third condition, then, upon which one may 
be spiritual, is a conscious reliance upon the Spirit, 
which is a “walk by means of the Spirit.” Such 
a reliance upon the Spirit is imperative because of 
the impossible heavenly calling, the opposing power 
of Satan, and the continued presence of the “flesh” 


140 He That is Spiritual 


with its Adamic nature. We cannot. meet to7 
morrow’s issues today. It is step by step in the 
walk and this demands a constant appropriation cf 
the power of God. The Christian life is never 
likened to a balloon ascension in which we might 
go up once for all and have no trouble or tempta- 
tion again. It is a “walk,” a “race,” a “fight.” 
All this speaks of continuation. The fight of faith 
is that of continuing the attitude of reliance upon 
the Spirit. To those who thus walk with God, 
there is open a door into “fellowship with the 
Father and with his Son” and into a life of fruit- 
bearing and service with every spiritual manifesta- 
tion to the glory of God. 

What, then, is true spirituality? It is the un- 
hindered manifestations of the indwelling Spirit. 
There are in all, seven of these manifestations. 
These blessed realities are all provided for in the 
presence and power of the Spirit and will be 
normally produced by the Spirit in the Christian 
who is not grieving the Spirit, but is confessing 
every known sin; who is not quenching the Spirit, 
but is yielded to God; and who is walking in the 
Spirit by an attitude of dependence upon His power 
alone. Such an one is spiritual because He is 
Spirit-filled. The Spirit is free to fulfil in him all 
the purpose and desire of God for him. There is 
nothing in daily life and service to be desired be- 
yond this. “But thanks be unto God, which giveth 
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” 


CHAPTER VII 

4m ANALOGY AND THE CONCLUSION 

I. AN ANALOGY. 

The Bible treats our deliverance from the bond- 
servitude to sin as a distinct form of salvation ana 
there is an analogy between this and the more 
familiar aspect of salvation which is from the 
guilt and penalty of sin. In the first five chapters 
of the letter to the Romans we have presented our 
salvation from the guilt and penalty of sin into 
justification and security through the redemption 
that is in Christ. Beginning with chapter six, a 
new question is raised: “Shall we (who have been 
saved into safety) continue in sin?’ The major 
portion of three chapters, as has been seen, is then 
devoted to a statement of the facts and conditions 
of salvation from the reigning power of sin in the 
daily life of the child of God. The analogy be- 
tween these two aspects of salvation may be con- 
sidered in five particulars: 


First, THE EstaTE oF THE ONE WHO NEEDS 
TO BE SAVED. 

a, From the penalty of sin. 

The Word of God presents an extended descrip- 
tion of the estate of the unregenerate in their need 
of salvation from the guilt and penalty of sin. 
They are said to be “lost,” “condemned,” and 
spiritually “dead” ; “there is none righteous, no, not 
one”; “all have sinned and come short of the 


142 He That is Spiritual 


glory of God.” But back of all this is the revela- 
tion that in themselves they are helpless and with- 
out power to alter or improve their condition. 
Their only hope is to depend completely on Another 
for His saving power and grace. “Believe on the 
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” 


b, From the power of sin. 

In like manner the Scriptures reveal the estate 
of the regenerate in relation to the power of the 
sin nature, to be that of impotence and helplessness: 
“For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) 
dwelleth no good thing’; “I find then a law, that, 
when I would do good, evil is present with me.” 
The hope of the child of God in salvation from the 
power of sin is also a complete dependence upon 
the power and grace of Another. “For the law of 
the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free 
from the law of sin and death.” “If by the Spirit 
ye are walking, ye shall not fulfil the lust of the 
flesh.” 


SECOND, THE Divine OBJECTIVE AND IDEAL IN 
SALVATION. 


a, From the penalty of sin. 

The greatest possible contrast exists between 
what an unregenerate person is before he is saved, 
and that estate to which he is brought in the saving 
power of God. Eternity will hardly suffice to give 
opportunity to discover the manifold marvels of 
Flis saving grace, “When we see him, we shall be 
like Him.” Even now “are we the sons of God.” 
We are to be “conformed to the image ef his 
Son.” 


Analogy and Conclusion 143 


b, From the power of sin. 


So, also, the Christian, in the purpose of God, is 
to find a perfect victory through Jesus Christ, and 
by the power of the Spirit. “I therefore, the 
prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk 
worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called.” 
“Grieve not the Spirit.” “Quench not the Spirit.” 
‘Walk in the light.” ‘Abide in me.” 


Tuirp, SALVATION Is OF Gop ALONE. 
a, From the penalty of sin. 


Salvation must be of God alone; for every as- 
pect of it is beyond human power and strength. 
Of the many great miracles which taken together 
constitute salvation from the guilt and penalty of 
sin, not one of them could even be understood, let 
alone be accomplished, by man. “It is the power 
of God unto salvation”; “That he might be the 
justifier of him which believeth.” 


b, From the power of sin. 


It is equally true that the believer is helpless to 
deliver himself from the power of sin. God alone 
can do it, and He proposes to do it according to 
the revelation contained in His Word. There is 
no power in man to deliver from “the world, the 
flesh and the devil.” “If by the Spirit ye are walk- 
ing, ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh”; “It 
is God which worketh in you both to will and to 
do of his good pleasure” ; “The law of the Spirit of 
life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law 
of sin and death.” “Finally, my brethren, be strong 


144 He That is Spiritual 


in the Lord, and in the power of his might.” 
“Through Jesus Christ our Lord.” 

Fourtu, Gop Can Save ONLY BY, AND THROUGH, 
THE Cross. 

a, From the penalty of sin. 

There would be no sinner left to save, if God 
had to deal with the sin question in us, as to its 
guilt and penalty, at the moment He would exercise 
saving grace. It is only that He has already dealt 
with the penalty of sin in the death of Christ that 
He can save the sinner apart from consuming 
judgments. Now, the sinner has only to believe 
that such saving grace is open to him through the 
Son of God. The Lord Jesus suffered unto death 
“for’ our sins. “He bore our sins in his body on 
the tree’; ‘““He was delivered for our transgres- 
sions”; “Because we thus judge, that if one died 
for all, then all died” (in the One). By this death 
He so perfectly met the condemnation of sin for 
us that God is now free even to justify any sinner 
without penalty or condemnation. A moral hind- 
rance in any sinner’s life is no longer an issue in 
his salvation. By the death of His Son, God has 
rendered Himself free to save the chief of sinners. 
In such salvation He is righteous and just because 
the Lord Jesus has suffered for our sins. 

b, From the power of sin. 

There could be no salvation of the Christian from 
the power of sin if God had not first taken the 
“old man” into judgment. Our condition would be 
hopeless if God had first to judge the sin nature in 
us before He could take control of our lives. He 


Analogy and Conclusion 145 


has already judged the “old man” by our co-cruci- 
fixion, co-death, and co-burial with Christ. The 
Lord not only suffered for our sins. He also died 
unto sin. He suffered under the penalty for our 
sins: He also died unto our sin nature. ‘For in 
that he died he died unto sin once.” “Knowing 
this, that our old man was crucified with him.” 
Because Christ has died unto sin, God, is righte- 
ously free to take control of the “flesh,” and the 
Adamic nature, and exercise His power for our sal- 
vation from the bond-servitude to sin; exactly as 
He is righteously free to save the unregenerate 
from the penalty of sin because Christ has met 
every judgment for the sinner. 


Firtu, SALVATION Is BY FAITH. 


a, From the penalty of sin. 

Since salvation is always and only a work of God, 
the only relation man can sustain to it is that of 
expectation toward the One Who alone can under- 
take and accomplish it. Salvation from the guilt 
and penalty of sin is wrought for us the moment 
we believe. It is conditioned on the act of faith. 
Men are not saved, or kept saved, from the con- 
sequences of sins because they continue their faith. 
Saving faith, as related to the first aspect of salva- 
tion, is an act of faith. We are saved by grace 
through faith. 


b, From the power of sin. 

Salvation unto sanctity of daily life is equally a 
work of God and the only relation the child of God 
can sustain to it is an attitude of expectation toward 
the One Who alone is able. There should be an 


146 He That is Spiritual 


adjustment of the life and will to God, and this 
salvation must then be claimed by faith; but in this 
case it is an attitude of faith. We are saved from 
the power of sin as we believe. The one who has 
been justified by an act of faith must now live by 
faith. There are a multitude of sinners for whom 
Christ has died who are not now saved. On the 
divine side, everything has been provided, and they 
have only to enter by faith into His saving grace 
as it is for them in Jesus Christ. Just so, there are 
a multitude of saints whose sin nature has been 
perfectly judged and every provision made on the 
divine side for a life of victory and glory to God 
who are not now realizing a life of victory. They 
have only to enter by faith into the saving grace 
from the power and dominion of sin. This is the 
reality of a “walk,” a “race,” a “warfare.” It is a 
constant attitude. We are to “fight the good fight 
of faith.’ Sinners are not saved until they trust 
the Saviour, and saints are not victorious until they 
trust the Deliverer. God has made this possible 
through the cross of His Son. Salvation from the 
power of sin must be claimed by faith. 

The Spirit, when saving from the reigning power 
of sin does not set aside the personality of the one 
He saves. He takes possession of the faculties 
and powers of the individual. It is the power of 
God acting through the human faculties of the will, 
emotions, desires and disposition. The experience 
of the believer who is being empowered is only 
that of a consciousness of his own power of choice, 
his own feelings, desires and disposition as related 
to his own self. He is “strong in the Lord and in 


Analogy and Conclusion 147 


the power of his might.” He is conscious that he 
is strong, to some degree; but he knows that it is 
“in the Lord and in the power of his might.” 


Il, THE CONCLUSION. 


Because thus far this discussion has dealt prim- 
arily with the theory, or doctrine of the spiritual 
life, the addition of a few practical suggestions may 
not be amiss. 

_ Since a life in the power of the Spirit depends 
on a continuous attitude of reckoning and appro- 
priation, it is important for most Christians to have 
a time of definite dealing with God in which they 
examine their hearts in the matter of known sin 
and their yieldedness, and in which they acknowl- 
edge both their insufficiency and His sufficiency by 
the Spirit. There, at that time, they may claim His 
power and strength to supplant their weakness. 
The Bible makes no rules as to time or condi- 
tions. It is the individual child, in all the latitude of 
his own personality, dealing with his Father. 

Be it remembered, too, that His provisions 
are always perfect; but our appropriation is always 
imperfect. There is much misleading reference to 
human attitudes and actions in relation to God as 
being “absolute”: such as “absolute surrender,” 
“absolute consecration,’ and “absolute devotion.” 
If there are well defined conditions upon which 
we may be spiritual, let us remember that, from the 
standpoint of the Infinite God, our compliance with 
those conditions are at best imperfect. What He 
provides and bestows is in the fullest divine per- 
fection; but our adjustment is human and there- 


148 He That is Spiritual 


fore subject to constant improvement. The fact of 
our possible deliverance, which depends on Him 
alone, does not change. We will have as much at 
any time as we make it possible for Him to bestow. 

We will always be learning to “walk in the 
Spirit.” How awkward we are! Most of us must 
creep before we walk and some even creep back- 
ward before they creep forward; but like the child 
who falls, we must profit by our failure, make our 
full confession, claim His immediate forgiveness 
and cleansing and arise by His grace and press on. 
No Christian can really look to Him for victory 
and not be constrained to give ceaseless thanks- 
giving for the evidence of His power. We know 
this because it is according to His promise. 

Normally, the spiritual Christian will be occupied 
with effective service for his Lord. This is not a 
rule. We need only to know that we are yielded 
and ready to do whatever He may choose. To “rest 
in the Lord” is one of the essential victories in a 
spiritual life. “Come ye apart and rest awhile.” We 
are just as spiritual when resting, playing, sleeping 
or incapacitated, if it is His will for us, as we are 
when serving. 

The Spirit-filled life is never free from tempta- 
tions; but “God is faithful, who will not suffer 
you to be tempted above that ye are able: but will 
with the temptation also make a way to escape, that 
ye may be able to bear it.” The plain teaching of 
the promise, in harmony with all Scripture on this 
subject, is that temptations which are “common to 
man” come to us all, but there is a divinely pro- 
vided way of escape. The child of God does not 


Analogy and Conclusion 149 


need to yield to temptation. There is always the 
possibility of sin; but never the necessity. 

Living in unrealities is a source of hindrance 
to spirituality. Anything that savors of a “religious 
pose” is harmful. One may be over confident, or 
over humble. The Spirit-filled life is natural. It 
will not do to impersonate ideals or to imitate others. 
Just here is the great danger in analyzing experi- 
ences. Some are so easily induced to try to imitate 
someone else. That which gives us our priceless 
distinctiveness is our own personality, and we can- 
not please Him more than to be what He designed, 
unaffected and simple hearted. Some Christians 
are disposed to “traffic in unlived truth”; repeating 
pious phrases the truth of which they have never 
really experienced. This must always grieve the 
Spirit. It is far better to pass for Jess than we are, 
than for more. It is possible to pass for just what 
we are through His grace. 

We are dealing always with our Father. Too 
often the walk in the Spirit is thought to be a me- 
chanical thing. This is perhaps due, again, to so 
much being said about “absolute conditions” that 
must precede, and “absolute results” that will fol- 
low. A machine demands absolute conditions and 
returns absolute results; but we are not dealing 
with a machine. We are dealing with the most lov- 
ing and tender-hearted Father in all the universe. 
The deepest secret of our walk is just to know H im, 
and so to believe in His Father-heart that we can 
cry out our failures on His loving breast, or speak 
plainly to Him in thanksgiving for every victory. 
‘When we know the consolation and relief of such 


150 He That is Spiritual 


communion we will have less occasion to trouble any 
one else. It is ours to tell Him just what we feel, 
just how bad we are at heart, and even our darkest 
unbelief. To do this only opens our hearts to Him 
for His blessed light and strength. Separation from 
close-up communion is the first thing that we should 
fear, and the “first aid” in every spiritual accident 
is the simple act of telling Him everything. Never 
pose before God. We are never wonderful saints 
of whom God may justly be proud: we are His little 
children, immature and filled with foolishness, with 
whom He is endlessly patient and on whom He has 
been pleased to set all His infinite heart of love. 
He is wonderful. We are not. 

Believe what is written. Remember the vital 
words of Rom. 6:6, 9: “Knowing this,” or ‘“be- 
cause we know this.” We are always justified in 
acting on good evidence. Where is there a safer 
word of testimony than the imperishable Word of 
our God? From that Word we know that God has 
provided a finished judgment for our sins and for 
our sin, and that the way is open for an overflowing 
life in the power of the blessed Spirit. We know 
that such a life is His loving purpose for us. We 
know from His Word that when we confess our 
sins He immediately forgives us and cleanses us. 
We must not wait until we feel forgiven and 
cleansed. Ours is to believe His unfailing promise. 
So far from imposing on Him by claiming His 
grace, to fail to claim all that His love would bestow 
will hurt Him more than all else. 

True spirituality is a reality. It is all of the mani- 
festations of the Spirit in and through the one in 


Analogy and Conclusion 151 


whom He dwells. He produces the life which is 
Christ. He came not to speak of Himself but to 
make Christ real to the heart, and through the heart, 
of man, Thus the Apostle Paul could write: “For 
this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in 
heaven and earth is named, that he would grant 
you, according to the riches of his glory, to be 
strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner 
man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith ; 
that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be 
able to comprehend with all saints what is the 
breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to 
know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, 
that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. 
Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abund- 
antly above all that we ask or think, according to 
the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory 
in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, 
world without end. Amen.” 


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